Franklin D. Roosevelt said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” What he meant by this statement is that fear is our real enemy, not the thing, situation, or person we may fear. We learn from these words in I Timothy 1:7, “God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind,” that fear is more than an emotion, but a spirit.
This spirit of fear, if we allow it can prevent us from experiencing all that God has for us, and it can lead to all sorts of unnecessary feelings like depression, anxiety, and paranoia. This is why we must not cooperate with the spirit of fear. It does not come from God; it comes from some other source. The spirit of fear originates in our flesh, and the devil does a great job of maximizing our fears, and he spooks out of so many blessings and opportunities, and convinces us to believe things that are not really not true about ourselves or situations. Fear is dangerous.
The truth is we have nothing to fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. Power, love, and a sound mind are the strengths we need to operate in faith and against fear.
The truth is all of us have some type of phobia. Some of us are scared of water, heights, being in closed places, and the dark. These are common phobias. Believe or not there are those who fear being blessed, being great, being healed, and simply being what God has called them to be. Everyone has a different fear, but the spirit of fear operates in the same way with each of us.
If we have these phobias and cooperate with them, we will never get the most out of life.
We will continue to make decisions based on fear. Permit fear to keep us from entering healthy and whole relationships. Permit fear to keep us from progressing professionally. Permit fear to keep us from living holy lives. Permit fear to keep us from doing the things have called us to do. Yes. We will have some fears, some hesitations in this life, but we have rise above them with the wisdom of FDR—the only thing we have to fear, is fear itself. When we realize how wonderful our God is, and how much God loves us, this will help experience the power, love, and the sound mind we need not to cooperate with the spirit of fear.
If God is for us, who can be against us? Fear shows up in all sorts of ways. Fear is not just the feeling that a person gets when going through a haunted house. This spirit of fear shows up in the form of insecurities. When we feel insecure about ourselves, uncomfortable with who we are and how God has made us, that is the spirit of fear. The spirit of fear shows up when we worry.
Focusing on the negative, and always thinking the worse about a situation is the spirit of fear. Sabotaging blessings is the spirit of fear. There are those who God blesses, and they sabotage the blessings by either failing to embrace it or rejecting in some other way because they have the spirit of fear.
Feeling unworthy is the spirit of fear. Any time when feel like others are more worthy than we are, or we do not deserve the most out of life, and to be taken care of, and to be treated in a respectful way, or like we are undeserving this is a consequence of having the spirit of fear.
We need to be like Kirk Franklin in his “Hello Fear.” We need to say good-bye to fear, because God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. What do you have to fear?
