Do not fear is commanded of the Lord. Have faith is also commanded. What the sum of these means is ,although you have fear, you believe what God says about what you are facing, and choose to face it with knocking knees.
The Greek word for fear is o phobos. The Bing dictionary defines phobia as irrational fear Bing Definition of Phobia. This is fear with lack of a reason, logic, or the ability to think clearly. What God is saying is to stop being irrational. Examine your reason for fear first. Next, ask yourself is that logical. What does God’s Word say about it? Then choose to renew your mind with what His Word says. This is thinking clearly.
Our problem is we find the world agreeing with our fear. Satan longs to decieve us. He is a thief, murderer, and the father of lies. (See John 10:10 ) The world agrees with him because they do not know the things of God. The ways of God are foolishness to those who are not saved. (See 1 Corinthians 1:18 ) If we choose to believe the way the world believes we are going against the Spirit of God. Acting as if we know more than Him. How prideful we can become in assuming we know more than He does. We are His creation. How many of you, like me, have found yourself ignoring what you know to be true to follow the ways of the world. I do so all the time. If it was not for the grace and abundant mercy of God I would still be lost.
So what can we do to stop being irrational? First, we need to examine our reason for fear and cast our anxiety on God. ( 1 Peter 5:7 ) Like a cast member of a movie, learn the script. Let Him take the fear and exchange it for the truth of His Word. Once we know what we are afraid of and why, God’s Word says to renew our minds. ( See Romans 12:2 ). We have to do this on purpose. God gives us His Word in exchange for the fear, but we have to choose to use it. We have to prove what God’s will is for ourselves by yeilding His thoughts. We are the only ones who can control our thoughts. Thoughts are born from what we feed our mind. Garbage in, garbage out. There are no exceptions. If I had a container I only put worthless thoughts in, and I go to it to retrieve something of worth, I would come up empty handed. Why? I only put what was worthless in there.
The next thing to do is to use His logic to replace ours. When we find ourself thinking irrationally, against the Word of God, we need to stop and arrest that thought. (1 Corinthians 10:3-5 ) We need then to decide what to replace it with. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. So once we know what to replace that thought with, we need to hear ourselves say what we should be saying. ( See Romans 10:17 ) We then continue to say this out loud until we know we have arrested the thought easily without much effort. At first it will be difficult because we have to concentrate on what we are doing. We also may be confronted with not wanting to speak the Word in public. A whisper is still speaking. Keep arresting that thought when it gets away from you. Don’t give up. Pray for help and remember you are in control.
Finally, we rest in what God says no matter how we feel or what we see. Faith is in the unseen, and it is not a feeling. ( See Hebrews 11:1 ) I have faith that the sun will rise tomorrow. I have not seen it rise yet, but it has before. Another example is that when I sit in a chair I expect it, by faith, to hold me up. That is what it is for. One thing to remember is that this process is ongoing. We cannot decide to stop. If we do the world that is throwing messages at us all day from people, the media, books, etc. with be filling our minds. Then when we think on what is in there it will outweigh God’s Word.
Start by taking one thought at a time and sticking with the process until you are confident in what God says about it. Next week we will address what we are saying. This is another step in assuring we are not thinking irrationally. I am praying for you as you renew your minds Beloved. Leave a comment below about when you chose faith over fear. ❤ Melinda
P.S. I am linking all scripture within the devotionals to Bible Gateway. In this way I hope to make it easier for the reader. Because of this change I ask you meditate on the scriptures within the text for the week. Thanks for stopping by!
Another Samaritan Woman 