Just how are you living each day? It's one thing in my own life that I take seriously. How did I live yesterday and how am I living today? People need to examine their lives seriously. Do you live in constant fear and agitation? How often do you worry? Do you leave the house scared of road accidents? Do you come home at night scared of burglars or robbers breaking into your house? Do you walk the streets at night scared of being victim of physical attack? Are you worried that one day you might be down with an incurable sickness? Do you fear for your future or for something you can't explain?
It is human to be afraid. Naturally, everyone want to survive. Immediately we sense anything that threatens our sense of self-preservation we get scared. A drowning man will kill his own rescuer just to make it back to the surface. Human instinct is wicked, selfish and dangerous.
Human instincts is guided by fear and the need to survive. Instincts which scientists say, have helped us survived for this long. Someone throws something at you, you don't know what it is, almost instantly you dock sideways. You put your hands in front of your face to protect your vulnerable eyes.
Our greatest battle is against fear. God said, Don't be afraid, than He said, do not sin. Fear brought sin into the world. Adam and his wife were afraid, they might not be wise enough. They fear God was holding back something from them. Next to faith fear is the oldest ideology. Just like God's kind of faith is built up by listening, fear comes by listening too.
Think how fast the excitement of moving into a new apartment will turn to anxiety if you heard the last occupant was murdered there in his sleep. In couple of minutes you begin to see shadows creeping on the walls. Your imagination takes over. Who or what you listen to counts.
Everyone has something they are terrified of. Only few are triumphing over their fears. The battlefield is all in your mind. Sun Tzu in the book Art of War said, wars are fought and won in the mind. What you know could be your greatest weapon or your greatest weakness. What lies in your thoughts prepares you for victory or defeat.
1. Think God:
I know I am saved. I am called to keep believing in God. I remind myself God loves me. He will not deceive me. I know trials are part of a broken world such as ours; despite of that, all things works for my good. I know I don't understand everything that happens. But I will lean on God. I will trust in Him. In the shadows of death... I will remind myself of His love. I trust in God's protection. He preserves me. You don't think this way day and cower in fear.
We are not just tempted to sin but to become afraid. How long we stay afraid is totally up to us by what goes on in your head. God's kind of faith is produced by hearing (present continuous) what God says. After you drop your bible, do you still hear God speaking? "Selah" does not mean holding the bible and thinking on it. It means pause where you at... take some time away from the reading table and go do some thinking on what you just read. Psalm One says, a man thinking on what God says through the day is happy. If you are constantly unhappy now you know why.
2. Get Comfortable with Losing Control:
Jesus said, He that will save His life will lose it and He that losses his life will gain it (Matthew 16:25). He is talking about that human survival instinct I talked about earlier. Faith requires you to be comfortable with having no control over You. Surfers can't control waves but they learn to trust their surfboards to carry them through. To lose your fears you must Lose yourself over to God. Lose your future, your home, your heart, your finance over to God. God is not teaching us to survive. He called us to LIFE! The bigger picture is not about what you lose. It is much of who you lose it to. If you lose anything to Christ then it can't be lost. It is a gain. Paul the apostle wrote in one of his letters, dying is gain and living is Christ. Why would he say that? He knows he wasn't dying for something -He was dying in and for Christ. Instincts will fail you just like feelings will. Faith will remain an anchor through the storm. If you are saved, you have a right to no longer be a slave to fear. What's on your mind? Faith, I believe is!
For I KNOW whom I have believed. 2 Timothy 1:12
Paul Aremo-Oluwa
Comments