Have you ever wanted more than anything else to say or do something that was weighing on your heart, but was stopped by fear? At one time or another, everyone has bumped up against its cold, icy grip. Fear can stop us from having the courage to do what we know is right, and from achieving our dreams. The good news is that God knows all about this force in our life, and we can overcome it when we rely on Him.

Fear can present itself as fear of failure, fear of death, fear of financial trouble, fear of crime, or the fear of anything else, it can shut us down and paralyze us if we let it. Fear isn’t just a feeling—it’s actually a powerful spirit. It preys on our mind. Studying the Bible, we see that this evil spirit isn’t from God, and it can be defeated. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV).

God blesses each one of us with a strong mind, and when we turn it over to Him, we have divine protection against the inevitable spiritual attacks that will come our way. This is a type of power that only those who trust God in all areas of their life can understand. He is the essence of love itself, and when we accept His Word on this, we find peace. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18).

The message reassuring us not to be afraid is so important to God, He repeats it multiple times throughout the Scriptures. He knows there will be situations in life that will be frightening to us, but He will deliver us from every scary situation. “I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4). When we accept by faith the promises in the Bible, we become God’s children. He will not let the spirit of fear terrorize His children!  ^“For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:15, 16, NKJV).

The sneaky thing about fear is that often, the thing we’re most afraid of is what materializes in our life. Now, I’m not saying that we’ll never feel fear. Even Jesus most likely felt it from time to time, because He was fully human, but He refused to let it control Him. The key is to entrust everything, even what we dread the most, to God. “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever leans on, trusts in, and puts his confidence in the Lord is safe and set on high”  (Proverbs 29:25, AMP).

In the Old Testament, when God tested Job’s faith, Job admitted that what he was most afraid of had come to pass. He cursed the day God gave him life, and he began to feel sorry for himself (Job 3:1-13, 25). God had to remind Job that He was above everything, even the evil that can befall anyone. The next time fear jumps out at us, we must remember that God’s hand is mightier, and He can deal with it much better than we can.