"So even if we are afraid, if we are willing to listen to the Holy Spirit He will guide us." -Traci Crandall

Conquer2016_FearBlog

Fear can either motivate us or cripple us. We can use fear to light a fire underneath us that drives us to destroy anything in our path, or we can become paralyzed, motionless, our brain stands still, and our emotions seem to become numb.

With all that being said God says in 2 Timothy 1:7 ‘For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.’

So even if we are afraid, if we are willing to listen to the Holy Spirit He will guide us. That’s when God jumps in front, takes over, and empowers us to say “NO” to fear. When we choose to listen to the Spirit’s leading we realize that we do have power, love, and self-discipline to destroy anything in our path that fear tries to take the upper hand on.

However, when the Spirit speaks, we listen, but choose the wrong response then that opens up a whole new door to a whole new path of destruction.

Fear leads to worry, fear leads to doubt, and fear leads to failure. Imagine back through your life when fear won. Now imagine if you would have trusted the Spirit’s leading. How would the results have been different? What possibilities did you (or should I say we) miss out on? My purpose here isn’t to drag you through a despairing walk down memory lane but it is so that you’ll say “Yes to God” the next time fear sets in. (And there will be a next time!)

The next time fear approaches, remember listening to the Holy Spirit will open the door to closeness with God, the opportunity to know His freedom, and it will give you the chance to be made more like Him.

2 Corinthians 3:17

For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

Approaching the end of this blog made think about Psalm 63:1,

O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly;
My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water

I had to ask myself, is this the real reason fear gets the upper hand? Am I (are we) a dry and weary land? Are we thirsty for God but so busy that we don’t even acknowledge our thirst? This dry and weary land leads us to making choices and listening to voices that are not God’s. The voices are the voices of fear and doubt. If the voice we are listening to is not God then unfortunately it must be Satan (Oh how I hate to admit that!)

Our weapon in combat is to quench our thirst! Call out to God, tell Him that He is Your God! Then dig into His Word, talk to Him, sing praises to Him, share with others about Him, quench your thirst and say no to fear!

Traci Crandall came to Friendship in October of 2004 with her husband, David, and two beautiful daughters, Kaitlyn and Georgia. She is currently on staff as Executive Assistant. She is proud to say she’s a native Texan and loves spending time with her family, cooking, and any opportunity she has to go to the beach!