Afraid Of Fear

Some words we just don't talk about and if we do venture to discuss them it isn't in a questioning sort of manner. There is an invisible line that just can't be crossed...or can it? That line was drawn by prisoners of fear and once a single soul was held captive, the numbers only increased and the more we heard of it, the more we were convinced, fooled into bondage by the least productive myth of all time.
To be afraid is to be trapped inside a cell with key in hand. You are your own prisoner. This condition is self-inflicted, because you chose to consume the lies that satan fed you.
I know fear. It visits me often and only because it knows that I am a returning customer, weak and susceptible to its techniques. Whether its anxiety attacks that assault the physical, or distrusts of the mind that aren't even available for public discussion. I know fear and fear knows me, but there is a way for us to be strangers.
I've thought about fear in a way that questions its existence, examines the source to find that there is no source. I think on the worst thing that could possibly happen and find that I'd rather endure that one thing I am afraid of than the shaking of hands and shortness of breaths, the thoughts that eat away at my soul. I've come to the all too obvious conclusion that fear isn't necessary, its not productive. The number of verses concerning this subject is astonishing. The answer is within those leather-bound pages of scripture, and it is the only medication that will ever work. When you take a pill you might need food or water to wash it down and keep it there, but when it comes to this medicine, the words of Christ, trust is the only necessary companion for the treatment to take effect.
I am afraid of fear, but a little less than I was yesterday. It hasn't completely disappeared and not because the medication of truth is defective, but because my sinful tendency to distrust the sovereignty of God prevents it from going away completely. I try not to think about fear, but when it does revisit me I feed myself truth and I practice trust. Sometimes though, I am afraid to even think about it. I was afraid of even writing this post, pathetic as that might sound, because it would remind me, but the possibility of others with the very same "condition" led me to share these things. I know that you're out there, but I don't know if you're reading this. I pray that you are, because I want to remind you that fear is ridiculous. It doesn't accomplish anything. Think about it. Really think about it. Can't you see it? We have nothing to fear, but fear itself and God has already conquered fear, freed us of it and He tells us repeatedly, over and over again, because He knows how scared we are and He wants us to trust Him, to take refuge in Him, to live the full life, to love as if we knew nothing of hurt and run without the fear of falling.

        "The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" ~Psalm 118:6