Have you ever had an overwhelming fear that you felt you could not overcome? It could have been for a number of reasons, but it was a heavy weight that seemed difficult to rid. From experience, it was a knot in my stomach, I had dry mouth and bead of sweat across my forehead. It all went away when I did something about it. Here is how to overcome fear.
Be like Jesus
Although Jesus is perfect (now and during His earthly life), there were times He faced many struggles and obstacles while on earth. Before He was arrested, Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. Scripture says He was “greatly distressed and troubled” (Matt.26:36-56). Although He didn’t stay there, Jesus experienced the emotional suffering before experiencing the physical pain and asked God to take this cup from Him. Then He had courage to say, “…Thy will be done.” (Matt.26:42) Jesus is Peace and Love, and He also reminds that perfect love casts out fear. Know that fear is a spirit that can be cast out. Ephesians 6 explains the spiritual warfare we wrestle with.
It is close to Easter or Resurrection Day as I write this post. I recently watched the Passion of the Christ again. This was my hubby’s first time watching this movie and it brought us to tears. Producer/director, Mel Gibson kept the ending and made sure to remind us that thankfully, Jesus got up from the grave.
Yes, He is risen! It’s because Jesus has risen, that we live today. His pain was for us and our sins. He teaches us that although there is trouble all around us, we should not fear. We can give our problems to Him when we pray and leave them there.
How To Overcome Fear: Redirect It.
Focus your fear to a healthy fear of God. This replaces the fear of man. This does not mean to be afraid of God. It just means to respect God.
Deuteronomy 10:20-22 says, “You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him, and to Him you shall hold fast, and take oaths in His name. 21. He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.”
Develop a growth mindset.
If you read my previous post, Growth Mindset Activities, you learned some growth mindset activities that help
stop stagnation. Creating musts in your life can be a part of the process, because now you have accountability. You can gradually achieve those goals one step at a time without looking back.
Overcome Fear by recognizing excuses.
Fear can cause you to procrastinate or even give up. Have you ever heard the term, “Face your fear”? When you recognize the excuses you make, such as “I’m too busy” or “I’m too tired”, get to the root and manage time to redirect and outsourcing your menial busy work to someone who can help you get it done while you work on the main project.
Outsourcing can also help ease your mind so that you can get the rest you need to complete your main task. After all, isn’t this sort of tiredness a state of mind anyway?
Overcome fear – Accept failures.
I have learned over time that failure is a lesson learned and a lesson earned. You’ve worked hard to fail and didn’t realize it at the time. As you continued working to resolve and try a better a way, you may have looked back and noticed how far you had come.
No matter how long it took, you succeeded from learning. You may have even scratched the idea altogether and started a different venture from scratch; however, the tools you used for the previous task may work better on another task. You may not have ever known that had if you had given up. Whew, I needed to remind myself of this!
In Summary
When you worry less about the time it takes to reach your goal and focus more on the goal, you will eventually get there. Short cuts and rushing tasks can add more anxiousness, which lessens the chance of completing the task at all. The more you focus on what you can control and tackle your main assignment, the better you will feel and the more you can complete and feel compete.
How have you overcome your fear? It it’s still a struggle, how are you dealing with it? Share your thoughts below and share this post with others who struggle with fear.