Archive: Slaying the Dragon of Fear

By Ann Coker

I should have been sound asleep! Tomorrow would be a very busy, but special day. Instead, I was wide awake, thinking. No, the right word is worrying. The special occasion was the wedding of our daughter’s best friend and the wedding party, including our son and daughter, was out having some fun before the big day. That sounds innocent enough, but I envisioned recklessness, with some of the party getting hurt on the way back to the motel where we were staying. I thought of all that could happen to these young people as I temporarily lost sight of the Lord’s faithfulness. Fear kept me awake, worrying.

Fear paralyzes—emotionally, mentally, physically.

What is the remedy? There’s only one. Faith. Faith has power to sustain because of the One on whom it rests. For Christians, faith rests ultimately in God; He is our sure foundation. But how does one cross the bridge from fear to faith? Over the years I have discovered a simple formula: An increased knowledge about the character of God yields faith. This seems a bit simplistic, but it summarizes how the Lord has moved me from fear to faith through some difficult times. ‘The formula may be simple, but the process has not been easy. Why we tend to learn our faith lessons the hard way I don’t know, but most of us do. While my struggles may be different from those you have experienced, the process and lessons are similar. I have learned much more about God and myself through my experiences with fear than through psychological or medical discussions.

At one point in my life I was having trouble dealing with my emotions; they were too near the surface. I sought medical help, but the medication simply canceled my emotions. I couldn’t get a handle on the problem. Time and again I walked myself through the 139th Psalm: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts” (v.23). In other words, Lord, tell me what’s the matter. He didn’t wait long to respond. Returning home from the grocery one day, I drove the car into the garage, locked the garage door and fumbled for my keys to unlock the house. I thought, “My, how I hate to lock and unlock everything.” Then it hit me: my problem was a lack of security. The Lord had answered my question and made me aware of my overwhelming need for trust. Now I could deal with it, and I knew I had begun to learn my lesson when one morning I opened the front door to get the newspaper and found our daughter’s set of keys with the house key still in the lock. Instead of being upset, I laughed out loud, and said “Thank you, Lord.” It was a beginning.

After moving to Indiana, we prayed that our former house would be sold to someone who needed a home in just that location. Months came and went with no prospects. One evening my husband commented, “You know, the Lord doesn’t owe us the sale of our house.” That insight changed the focus of my prayers and taught me much about the relationship between a good God and His people. My attention changed from what God could do for me to who He is.

We sing the chorus: “God is so good; God is so good; God is so good. He’s so good to me.” Wait! God is not good because He does good things for me. Rather, God does good things for me because He is good. The difference affects my attitude.

We do not ascribe goodness to God due to His performance. Goodness is essential to God’s character; His nature is goodness. God is good.

In her book, The God of All Comfort, Hannah Whitall Smith said it well: “A great many things in God’s divine providences do not look like goodness to the eye of sense … But faith sits down before mysteries such as these, and says, ‘The Lord is good, therefore all He does must be good, no matter how it looks, and I can wait for His explanations.’”

While I was trying to learn this lesson, the bottom fell out. My little corner of the world was shaken; changes occurred so rapidly that I began to focus on the circumstances around me. Our future plans were uncertain. Our daughter announced her engagement, yet we had depleted our savings because of the unsold house. My doctor had advised surgery to alleviate a long-standing physical condition. My faith was not adequate for the circumstances. Fears about travel, health, finances, and ministry made me numb, and the resulting paralysis of fear showed up in the ways I acted and reacted in daily living. The slightest decisions, even about what to eat, were most difficult to make.

Again, the Lord spoke to my need through Scripture. While reading the list in Revelation 21 of those who would taste of the second death, one group stood out—and it headed the list of murderers, idolaters, and liars (v.8). It was the cowardly and the fearful who would not be among those inheriting eternal life. I did not want to be a coward and miss out on life. Psalm 38 described me quite well—folly, numbness, ill health, feelings hard to express. Was there a cure? I read on: “I confess my iniquity; I am full of anxiety because of my sin” (v.18). At once I confessed my anxiety, my fear, as sin. Then God did His work: “I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4).

I found this to be the first step in moving from fear to faith—admitting fear as sin, confessing it to God and receiving His forgiveness. Faith cannot rule unless fear is dealt this fatal blow.

Moses was afraid and doubted himself when he asked God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh?” (Exodus 3:11) God responded by giving Moses His name, “I AM WHO I AM … Thus you will say, I AM has sent me to you” (v.14). It is God’s resounding “I AM” that drowns out our weak “I can’t.” As people react with fear, God responds with assurance. Note the contrast, not only in the meaning of words but in relationship. Fear and a sense of “I can’t” center on ourselves; faith and assurance are built upon the character of God and who He is. Note the familiar 23rd Psalm, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil [harm]; for Thou art with me” (v.4). Walking without fear is possible because of God’s presence. “When my anxious thoughts multiply within me, Thy consolations delight my soul” (Psalm 94:19). Again, it’s a matter of changing the focus from ourselves to God, who is completely trustworthy. The by-product of slaying the dragon of fear is receiving God’s peace. I am reminded of the promise in Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and sup­plication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Our daughter’s wedding plans began to unfold. The Lord provided one need after another, increasing her faith—a gift we could not have given her from a savings account. Because no risk was involved, I postponed surgery indefinitely. But I still had to deal with our future plans for ministry. I became anxious once again.

I dealt with feelings of inadequacy and asked myself, “Do I want to be that vulnerable to hurt again?” For days I repeated this question to myself. Then God spoke with definite assurance. Yes, I am inadequate for my circumstances, and I can’t project how I’ll handle the future. What matters, though, is that God is adequate. The sovereign, almighty God is there in my future, the same yesterday, today and forever. He is not “I Was” or “I Will Be,” but He is the great I AM.

In his book My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers provides an incisive commentary on Romans 8:35, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”:

God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says—”I will be with him in trouble.” It does not matter what actual troubles in the most extreme form get hold of a man’s life, not one of them can separate him from his relationship to God. We are “more than conquerors in all these things.” Paul is not talking of imaginary things, but of things that are desperately actual; and he says we are super-victors in the midst of them, not by our ingenuity, or by our courage, or by anything other than the fact that not one of them affects our relationship to God in Jesus Christ.

I am different because of lessons learned about fear. A new freedom released me to be myself in Christ. A new trust level enables me to turn circumstances over to the Lord more easily. Situations may be out of my control, but I can control how I react internally and externally. God supplies the inward peace and He also makes me more sensitive to the hurts of others. Realizing my own struggles, I know that others travel similar paths and need to move from fear to faith.

Increased faith comes from a greater knowledge of God and His character, and that only comes through the study of His Word. One study in particular was helpful to me. In carefully researching the question “Who is like the Lord our God?” (Psalm 113:5), I found answers in such scriptures as Exodus 15:11-13; Isaiah 44:6-8; 46:5,9; 57:15; Jeremiah 10:6-16; II Samuel 7:22; 22:32-33; and Philippians 2:5-11. Explore these verses yourself; find others; prepare a catalog on the character of God. These will become a stronghold when fear threatens your faith in God.

At the first onset of fear, beware. Change your focus from yourself and your circumstances, to God and His great love. Let your prayers be spoken out of faith rather than fear, because even in the worst of circumstances, God is there. And if God is there, His great love is there also.

Oswald Chambers gives further commentary on Paul’s question, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”:

“Shall tribulation …? “Tribulation is never a noble thing; but let tribulation be what it may—exhausting, galling, fatiguing, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you. “Shall anguish … ?”—can God’s love hold when everything says that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice? …

 

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are all against God’s character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it—the love of God in Christ Jesus.

From that night in the motel to the present, God has been doing a marvelous work in me. He has taught me to exchange my restlessness and fear for His peace.

He is faithful—and He is good.

Ann L. Coker is a pastor’s wife, freelance editor, and has four children and eight grandchildren. She was previously a part of the Good News editorial staff.