Prisoners of fear

Many people walking around today are prisoners of some sort; locked up by fear, in their own bodies, brains and minds. They are incarcerated by fear of their pasts: fear of past assaults and abuses, fear of uncertainties, and fear of the future. Very many people are held down from fulfilling their destinies due to negative voices speaking to them, telling them it will not work out fine. 

As much as fear seems to be human’s natural response to threat, it is on many occasions triggered by something that does not even exist at all. That is why someone conceived F E A R as an acronym for… False Evidence Appearing Real. 

When there is a cloud of fear over someone, it becomes difficult to think straight, pray accurately, and discern appropriately. Indeed, when fear grips one, divine signals are down, the vision of the future becomes bleak, self-doubt creeps in, lies are believed, energy is dissipated, appetite and motivation get lost, and then the edge is broken. 

There are two voices always speaking to us: the voice of fear and the voice of faith. Whenever the voice of fear says, “What if you do it or take that step and nothing happens? You are finished!” Let the voice of faith from within respond, “What if I do it and it works out?” Then I am a success; and if it does not work out as planned, I would have satisfied my curiosity that at least I tried! The day we come to this conclusion about life, we would have conquered fear forever. We would have looked death in the face and crossed to life, as we would be no longer be slaves to fear, but would now be children of God truly. 

It must be noted that the voice of fear usually comes from credible, educated, influential data, giving us a hundred reasons why we should not do what we must to get to our next level. The voice of fear is often very loud and intimidating. 

We must learn to hear the still voice of God’s peace in our hearts. We must do everything within our power to rebuke, resist, and reject the darkness clouding our minds; otherwise, stagnancy may be lurking around for a season. No matter how much we romanticize fear, it remains a response which we may either cave in to or say NO to. We can choose to say YES to FAITH, and NO to FEAR.

Culled from my book “How Do You Respond?”