Faith Over Fear 2.0
It’s so easy to struggle with fear. It’s so easy to become anxious about the endless things we have to do and all of the commitments we’ve made. It’s so easy to worry about the future and wonder if everything will work out the way we had hoped. It’s easy to question the desires in our hearts and doubt if they’ll ever be fulfilled.
There’s so much unknown…in college and post-grad…but in every season of life. I still struggle with fear, anxiety, and worry. It just looks different. In college, I worried so much about finding the right guy. Now that I’ve found him, I’ve moved on to new worries — finances, jobs, the future. We can always find reasons to fear.
But at its very root, fear is a lack of faith. Anxiety and worry fail to recognize God as God. Fear forgets that He is sovereign and good, that He holds the past, present, and every day to come. Job 26:7 puts it this way: “He stretches out the north over empty space And hangs the earth on nothing.”
God, in His infinite might and immeasurable power, causes the very earth to hang in space. The same God who created and sustains the universe also says, “Do not fear, for I am with you” (Isaiah 41:10).
Anxiety and worry are not struggles to live with. They are our hearts’ cries for more of Him — more of His presence, more of His peace, more of His word. Romans 12:2 says, “[D]o not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Some translations put it this way: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world.” I love that. Because fear is a consistent pattern in this world. We see it every day across every news platform. But it’s overcome by the renewing of our minds.
What does that look like? It’s getting in His Word. It’s asking the Holy Spirit to replace worried thoughts with truth. It’s praising Him, worshipping Him, thanking Him for all He’s done and all He’s yet to do. It’s giving Him the glory He deserves and reminding ourselves of how great, and how big, He truly is.
It’s beholding Him and, in turn, becoming more like Him. Everyday. “But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
So what have we to fear? No matter what happens in this life. Whether we get the dream guy or the dream job, whether the economy turns around or it all crumbles to the ground, God is still God.
“God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Come and see what the Lord has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease
to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire. He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.’
The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.”
Psalms 46
If I really believe that, if I really truly trust Him and what He says in His Word, I won’t be afraid. But rather I’ll live a life of boldness and unwavering faith. And that’s what I want — not to get my way or see to it that my plans succeed, but to walk closely every day with a God who is infinitely and immeasurably good.
