I recently watched a movie and heard this quote.
Fear is the path to the dark side.
Fear leads to anger.
Anger leads to hate.
Hate leads to suffering.
– The Phantom Menace
That one got me. Fear is the path to the dark side. Yep. When I revel in fear I am choosing to ignore God and His promises to me. When I choose fear over faith I am choosing to believe that God can’t or won’t help me. I am choosing disbelief.
Now I know I don’t know everything. I need help. I need direction. I need to exercise my faith. When fear comes up upon me I have learned I have two choices:
- I can feed my fear. Run the “what if?” questions over and over in my mind. When I do this fear turns to terror and I freeze. I shut down and lose faith in God and myself. Then I get angry at everyone and everything. My vision gets distorted and I lose hope.
- I can choose to believe that God will help me. I can choose to believe that He is the God of the impossible and it doesn’t even need to make sense to me. It does not have to be logical or even realistic. He is the God of miracles and I can choose to take Him at his Word and believe that He will help me through it. I can choose faith.
What about you?
How do you let fear go?
Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you,Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ – Isaiah 41:10