I have received a couple requests for a more practical treatment of the topic of fear. So I decided to go ahead and write this post in that vein.

I know from my experiences of two effective ways to fight fear: to nurture a higher view of God and to face your fears. The second way is more obvious, so I will deal this it last. The first way is a less direct, but no less effective, defense against fear.

At the root of almost every fear is pride, viewing ourselves as somehow higher than God. This, having a higher view of God will make us less susceptible to fear. In his book Trusting God, Jerry Bridges discusses the triangle of God’s attributes: sovereignty, wisdom, and love. When we fear, we doubt one of these things in God, and when we doubt one of these things in God, we arrogantly think that we can do better than Him.

For example, when, in our fear, we doubt God’s sovereignty, we might say to ourselves, “God isn’t big enough to handle my problems; so I should just take matters into my own hands.” This is an attack from Satan, undermining our belief in God’s power. Or we might say, “God doesn’t really know what He’s doing; I do.” This calls into question God’s wisdom. When we say this to ourselves, our flesh tries to get us to make our own plan of events instead of accepting God’s plan. However, the attack that most commonly plagues me is one against God’s love for me: “God doesn’t really care about what’s best for me.” Now, obviously more than one of these attacks can happen at the same time, so it can be quite difficult to distinguish, but the basic principle still stands.

So how do you combat these attacks? I would recommend Scripture. Find and soak in those passages that reinforce your belief in each point of the triangle. For sovereignty, a good place to start would be Nehemiah 4:14. For wisdom, Romans 16:27 and 1 Corinthians 1:20. For love, Romans 8:28. Read those passages (as well as others) and dialogue with God about what you find there.

The other way to fight fears is to face them. As Gregg Harris, father of Alex and Brett, the founders of the Rebelution, said, “True courage is not the absence of fear. It is refusing to allow fear to control your actions.” This means that courage is doing something even though you are afraid to do it. Obviously you shouldn’t seek to face the fear of a rampaging lion or any other healthy fears, but facing the sinful fears is necessary and admirable.

The first step in facing a fear is to recognize opportunities to face it. This can be very difficult, but I have found that there are many opportunities hiding in plain sight. We just have to look around this that in mind, asking God to reveal opportunities.

Of course, if we don’t want to fight fear, then all the opportunities in the world won’t help us. So the next step is to ask God for help. Ask him for the desire to fight fear as well as for the strength and resolve to see the fight through to the end. You should have been asking God for help all along, but this is a specific instance of doing so.

After this, the best motto to follow is “Just do it.” I would normally not recommend this, but when combating fear, you just need to plunge in. Involve yourself in a situation where it is very difficult to back out. This way, you will be forced to do the thing you fear. I have also found that God sometimes uses other sinful fears in combating a fear. For example, he might use fear of man to drive you to overcome your fear of fellowshipping with other believers at church. This is yet another instance of God using our sin to accomplish His perfect plan.

I would be lying if I said that this battle plan had helped me conquer all my fears. It is a very hard battle to fight against fear, and I am very reluctant to fight it. However, I believe that I have given sound advice, based in Scripture.

~Jayan