How God Helps Me with Fear[1]
In April, 2024, I had reached a crisis. Fear was tormenting me, especially in the middle of the night. I would wake up and then couldn’t return to sleep. Awful thoughts assailed my mind.
Divorce proceedings between Sarah and her husband were underway, and I worried about her and her young son.
Mostly, I feared for their future, together and separately. These concerns robbed me of sleep, night after night.
I told God I couldn’t take all this stress anymore. What to do?
The answer, of course, is faith. To overcome fear, we need to grasp the promises of God.
But which promises?
I couldn’t find sure promises that either Sarah or her son would be healthy or happy in coming years.
Obviously, my own happiness and internal peace were bound up tightly with theirs.
Just as obviously, I couldn’t maintain my emotional and mental health by basing my joy on their physical and emotional welfare. Something had to be done.
A new approach
Then I realized that God has given us many promises in Scripture to apply to us personally, regardless of our circumstances, including the wellbeing of those whom we love.
With this new insight, I decided I would base my hopes for the future upon God’s Words to me, claiming these as true, quite apart from whatever might happen to Sarah and Blaise.
So, beginning that night, when one specific fear attacked my mind, I countered it with these assurances from God: No matter what happens to them,
Jesus will be with me. Mathew 28:20
God has said: “Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; surely, I will help you; surely, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10
God will give me wisdom when I ask for it. James 1:5
All things will work together for good for me if I love God. Romans 8:28
Nothing can separate me from the love of God for me in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:38-38
His grace will be enough for me. 2 Corinthians 12:9
He will renew my strength as I wait upon him in faith and prayer. Isaiah 40:10
His peace will guard my heart against all anxiety if, by prayer and supplication I let my requests be made known to him, all the while thanking him that he will do what is best and fulfill all the promises he has made (see the above) and all his good purposes for me and for his people. Philippians 4:6-7
Finally, I somehow decided to obey God’s command to cast “all my cares upon him, since he cares for me” (1 Peter 5:7).
Release
That night, in his mercy God allowed only one of my many fears to assault me.
In my mind, I said, “I claim these promises against you,” personifying the objects of my apprehension.
So, one by one, I named the promises I mentioned above, in faith.
After that, I said to God, “Now I give these to you. They are off my desk and onto yours.”
And I went to sleep.
The next night, another worry presented itself. I used the same approach and was able to return to sleep.
For the next three weeks, I repeated this process nightly until one night nothing came to my mind to disturb my rest.
About a month later, a different concern threatened to upset me, but I said, “I am going to deal with you as I dealt with your buddies. Go away!”
And sleep came.
Since then, each time I have started to worry about anything, I have withstood fear by claiming God’s promises, and calm returned to my mind.
Friends, this approach has worked for me, and I commend it to you.
The point is that, regardless of what happens in this crazy world or to those whom I love, God assures me that he will take care of me.
By no means does that lead me to stop praying for government leaders, Christians around the globe, or for my friends and family.
But it does mean that I don’t let fear govern my mind and my heart.
[1] Though “anxiety” and “fear” are used interchangeably now, I prefer to follow the old distinction between them, according to which “anxiety suggests feelings of fear and concern detached from objective sources,” while “fear refers to “a feeling of alarm or disquiet caused by the expectation of [a specific] danger, pain, disaster, or the like” (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language). I fact, I have also struggled with anxiety for most of my life. God has also given me substantial deliverance from anxiety in the past few months, but that is another story.