Free From Fear

There is a spirit of fear that is plaguing our world today. It is attaching to each and every person’s deepest insecurity and it is creating a frenzy of emotions among all of God’s people. It is interesting because the thing with fear is that it leaves you with two options: fight or flight. Typically we choose flight and either try to avoid our fears or run away from them because they scare us so much, but we must remember that there is another option and that is to face it head on, which is to enter into the battle with the enemy.

There is a great example of this in the Old Testament when the Lord gave Moses the remedy to the poisonous serpents that were attacking the Israelites:

From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.” Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

Numbers 21:4-9

The Israelites rightly feared the poisonous serpents and so they lamented to Moses and asked him to pray to the Lord to take away the serpents. But if you notice here, the Lord doesn’t take away the serpents, nor does he stop the Israelites from being bitten by the serpents. What God does do is provide a remedy to death from the serpent bites. Essentially, God doesn’t take away the suffering, but he does provide a solution through it.

So what was God’s solution? The remedy was for Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole to be lifted up so that all the people could view it. The Lord wanted the Israelites to look at the very thing that was causing their suffering and that which was killing them. They were to face their fear instead of try to avoid it. This solution that God provides the Israelites in the Old Testament points to the Crucifixion of Christ. Jesus Christ himself was nailed to a cross and lifted up high for all to see. Today we have crucifixes in the Church and in our homes to keep the Crucified Christ in the forefront of our minds and hearts. We do well to look upon the Holy Cross for by the Holy Cross Christ has redeemed the world.

In our own lives, we must ask ourselves what is it that we fear? Then consider the fact that we are most probably currently either avoiding that deepest fear or running away from it. We are most probably praying for God to take away the thing that we fear. This is our human nature to do this, but it is God’s remedy to bravely have us look upon it. As we see with Moses and the Israelites, the Lord’s remedy for fear is to face it, to look upon it and be saved. This is the Way of the Cross that Jesus invites us to follow him in. Instead of trying to avoid our fear or begging God to remove it, invite Jesus into it and allow him to stand with you as you look upon it. We can do this in faith, knowing that Jesus will never abandon us. We can do this in hope, knowing that Jesus redeems. We can do this in love, knowing that Jesus loved us first.

So often we try to control our fears. We struggle with allowing God to provide the remedy because we are working so hard to try to fix things on our own. Only when we are brave enough to give up control of our cross, to surrender our suffering to Christ, to stop trying to tailor our cross to how we want it, will we be able to allow Christ to transform and free us though the very cross that he has given us. Our Heavenly Father knows best what will purify us. He has the perfect remedy for us. We must be open to his way. We must trust in his way. We must believe in his love for us.

I have lived most of my life afraid to fail. This was a huge eye opener to me when the Holy Spirit revealed this to me. I had no idea how much this fear had directed my life. It had made me build up so many walls. It had shaped my choices and hardened my heart to the power of the Holy Spirit in my life. As I spent my life hiding behind my walls, I never fully lived as Christ intended me to live. Hidden and afraid, my gifts and charisms were also hidden with me behind those walls.

The most interesting part of all this is that I have never felt afraid. My pride was doing such a good job of hiding even the feeling of fear that I had been carrying with me all along. When I finally realized that the fear was there, I then had to began to understand that the Lord did not want me to run away from it or to get stuck in shame for fearing, but he actually wanted to heal me of it. This meant that I needed to look at my fear, to face it head on, instead of praying for it to be removed. This took a lot of courage and a lot of prayer. It meant remembering and looking at things that I had hidden away deep inside of me.

With the Holy Spirit as my lead, I begin looking at my fear of failure so that I could see all the ways that this fear had directed my choices. There was a lot of forgiveness that came through this process. Mostly forgiveness of myself, but also forgiveness of others who had played a part in the lies that this spirit was speaking to me. By walking with the Lord through this process, the most amazing thing happened, although the cross remained, the fear vanished. I will always probably struggle with a temptation to fear failure, but I am confident now that the Lord is my strength. I am confident that he will never abandon me. I am freed from having to make choices based upon a fear of failure. I am freed from being bound behind the walls of pride. I am strengthened in the love of God and although my cross remains, I am free to offer it to Christ so that he can redeem it!

As the Lord pursued me and led me deeper, he was right there with me in his mercy. As he called me out from behind the walls of pride into newness of life, he gave me the grace to no longer desire to be hidden. As the Lord showed me that I needed to face my fear, he gave me the courage to step out in faith. Through Christ alone I am freed from the chains of fear!

I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Philippians 4:12-13

I have mentioned before how I have gone through Discipleship Deliverance with Whole Catholic. This ministry is what has given me the tools to know who to be set free. Free to be myself. Free to be the person God created me to be. Free from fear. The tools that I learned from Discipleship Deliverance are tools that I will have with me for the rest of my life. As I step out in faith now, more confident in the love that God has for me and the purpose of my life, I trust that no matter what comes, Jesus will never abandon me. He will always be my guide and I can look to him in prayer and Sacred Scripture to disciple me along the way.