Psalm 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
From the opening scripture, there are three things mentioned alongside fear and they are light, salvation, and strength. The author is asking, in other words, why should I be afraid when there is light, salvation, and strength? Fear is expelled when these things are present but there is fear when they are absent. So based on this verse, we see that the absence of light which can also symbolize darkness, lack of clarity or blindness breeds fear. Also, when a person is without strength in an area of life, they become afraid, and then finally when they feel they can’t save themselves from impending danger, fear comes.
The first thing that expels fear is illumination or light. I remember when I was much younger and there was no light in a room I wanted to enter, I was always afraid and hurried to turn on the light. Because there was no light, I couldn’t see anything and so I made up images of dangerous creatures in my mind and started to fear. That’s how it is. Because we can’t see what God has for us, we are sometimes anxious and afraid that we begin to have negative images (thoughts) of how things may not go well for us in the future. When fear grips you, darkness is around you, and what the situation you’re confronted with does is that it clouds your mind such that you don’t see the way forward. Thus, fear prevents us from making the right decisions because we are blinded.
Fear grips a person based on the consistency of a certain pattern of thoughts. The more you think and meditate on a negative situation, the easier it is for you to fall into that situation but when you focus on the positive, you attract the right things. It all begins in the mind and the mind will work with the information it is fed with. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Fear would also be present when we hear, just that this time it is not the Word being heard. Isaiah 26:3 You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast because they trust in you.
Whatever you fix your mind on determines whether you live in fear or in faith. While faith would bring the peace mentioned here, fear would cause anxiety.
It’s possible to have peace in the midst of chaos. Philippians 4:6-7 mentions not to be anxious but present our requests to God and the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Our hearts must be guarded and focused on what God has said even when information all around is faith-weakening. Sometimes, the information is amplified than the reality of the matter. When that peace is evident, there is light and you can easily navigate that storm. There have been times when I was feeling out of sorts in my body and then I google the symptoms and the results of the search magnify what it is and name a huge illness. All of a sudden, as I think about it, I feel worse just because of the fear. When the pandemic began in 2020, I started to fear and even started thinking, at some point, that everyone was going to die eventually from the coronavirus because of the way it was amplified on the news. I saw that because I kept listening to the news and following the figures, I was scared.
I decided to stop following the news and fed myself with messages, meditated on health scriptures, etc. After a while, I noticed that it felt as if I wasn’t part of the world and all that was happening. Every time someone in my house talked about it, I would say that even if they contracted the virus, I will never have it. Some weeks later, I started feeling unwell and the thought of it being the virus came. I said I can’t be in a hospital at this time of a pandemic so I took a bottle of water, prayed over it, and drank it. I was shocked when I was better by the next morning. I went to the hospital after a year and was told I had a lot of antibodies. So even though I hadn’t taken any vaccine yet, my body seemed immunized.
Proverbs 1:33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.
The question is who or what are you listening to?
Again, fear takes the strength out of you and that’s why in most scriptures that speak about fear, it’s often said: Don’t be discouraged or Be strong. Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Isaiah 35:4a Say to those with fearful hearts, Be strong, do not fear; your God will come. Faith that a problem would be solved is not a denial of the fact…it is the endorsement of the truth. The fact is that I’m not feeling well but the truth is By His stripes, I’m healed. The fact is that I don’t have money to meet my needs but the truth is My God shall supply my needs according to His riches in glory.
Faith and fear are inversely related. They both thrive on information so regulating the information we continually take in is key to overcoming fear.
The Word In Clarity 