How to Overcome Fear of the Future and Dread and Find Peace in God
When you think about tomorrow or about your future, do you find hope or apprehension, fear, or dread attached? Many of us have had difficult pasts. We’ve had various struggles and trials, and those have become our point of reference for our future. Yet others, through their struggles, are able to look to God and His promises and believe and hope for something better for their future, that is faith. It all depends on which voice we listen to. Are we listening to a spirit of Fear or the Spirit of God? Let’s explore how to overcome the fear of the future and dread and establish faith over fear in our lives as God intended.
How can fear control our lives?
To overcome fear, it’s important to understand how it got there in the first place. Lots of times, when we look back at our own personal history and maybe even our family history, we can find one or more door points. A door point is a situation or event where the enemy had the opportunity to come in and join our thinking. He wants to interfere with how we process a situation so it will be warped by his perspective rather than filtered through God’s perspective.
An example could be an automotive accident. Perhaps an injury occurred, and the recovery process was long and difficult. Obviously, no one would want that kind of thing to happen again, but if a spirit of fear comes to that person and they agree with it in that vulnerable time, it can train them to project and dread possible similar situations in the future.
They may spend the rest of their life dreading accidents and injury and can go into avoidance where they may not even be interested in driving anymore. This is how a spirit of fear can train us to keep us in bondage.
How can fear consume our thoughts?
Fear can come in other ways as well – it might be a generational iniquity; a trained way of thinking that has followed the family line. It may come in the name of self-protection or self-preservation and project all kinds of unpleasant things into a person’s future. Another angle it can come in is through mistakes or failure; it may project our past mistakes into our future and rob us of the hope for tomorrow. Fear is just that – the absence of faith or hope.
Fear and dread will cause us to get hyper-focused on the potential problems or evils of tomorrow so that we cannot properly deal with the things in today. That’s why the Word says:
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Matthew 6:34 KJV
Choose faith over fear
It is essential for our health and spiritual welfare to remain present in today. We need to take on each challenge, choice, activity, one at a time, step by step, trusting God for the leading and guidance for the next and the next step. The enemy would love to tempt us to have it all figured out.
He’ll bring in the need to know so that we can plan our lives in advance and not even have to trust God. It’s a form of rebellion and divination and can lead a person down a path of pursuing false prophecies and false words or leaning on philosophies or their own understanding in order to maintain some sort of control in their life. A driving need to control comes out of fear.
How fear can affect our health
If we allow ourselves to remain in a constant state of alertness through dread or anxiety about future situations, provision, failures, etc. our body will continually release various stress hormones at low levels. Over time, these stress hormones can break down our immune system and other body functions.
Although fear causes us to believe that we are protecting ourselves and that our excessive awareness is for our own safety, it is actually wearing us down and causing destruction from the inside out. Is that really something we want? Perhaps it’s time to make Fear our enemy and recognize him for the liar that he is.
(Read this article to learn more about how fear can affect our body.)
We get to choose faith over fear in our lives
So how can we practically defeat Fear in our lives? Many of us would love to have an A+B=C approach – if I do this and this, then this will happen, and fear will be defeated. Some would try to just continually take authority over it and cast out a spirit of fear, yet they will find, over time, that they are getting weary, worn out, and defeated in an unending battle. Others will ask God over and over again to deliver them from fear, yet be frustrated by little to no results.
Overcoming fear, or anything else, is not just about a positive confession or declaration of what we want. It’s about a heart issue. Who do we choose to really believe today? Who are we lining our hearts up with in faith?
Fear means we are putting our faith in the enemy’s plans
Did you know fear is a kind of faith too? It’s putting faith in and believing the negative things that the enemy would want to project into our future. It may be considered anti-Christ because it tears down a person’s belief in God’s truth and establishes a belief in the enemy’s lies.
It will take every negative experience from our past and try to perpetuate them into our future. We need to make every day a new opportunity for God to meet us, not for bad things to happen to us! We need to know and recognize the voice of our shepherd and learn how to follow His voice and turn away from fear’s lies.
But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers. John 10:2-5 KJV
Establish your faith in God’s truth
God’s truth is the only place where we will find a firm foundation and straight paths. Fear will cause us to be wish-washed all over the place and will bring confusion and frustration. The Word says that a double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. To be double-minded is to keep one foot in God’s kingdom and one in the enemy’s, going back and forth between fear and faith but not taking a firm stand or position in who we are actually choosing to believe and serve.
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. James 1:5-8 KJV
Choosing faith over fear helps us to cope with challenges better
How do we know that the voice of fear projecting bad things into our future is a lie? After all, it could happen, right? It may, but it also may not. It’s important to note that a spirit of fear doesn’t know your future; only God does! So why are we wasting all of our time worrying about something that might never happen?
If we’ve worked ourselves up in fear, anxiety, and stress about an issue, we’ll be far less capable of coping with a negative situation if it arises than if we had opted to remain in peace and not worry in advance. If a person is already in a state of stress when an adverse situation arises, their stress and adrenaline hormones will spike into an excessive fight or flight scenario, and they may find unable to cope or properly process a solution.
Choosing faith requires trusting God
If however, a person has rooted and grounded themselves in a relationship and trust with God, where they can take each step by faith, moment by moment in peace, when an adverse situation comes up their physical fear response will be more moderated. This will make it easier for them to problem solve, find solutions, or make quick decisions to avert danger.
We can maintain full assurance that God will help us through anything and give us the strength and wisdom we need to overcome. It all comes down to where our source is or who we are submitting ourselves to.
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:7 KJV
God’s love helps us defeat fear
This prayer in Ephesians 3 needs to be the cry and desire of every believer’s heart. Because if these things abound in our hearts, we will not fail:
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:14-19 KJV
If we seek and have a desire to live after faith, if we seek to be grounded in God’s love, if we really have a desire to understand the wholeness of who God is and His heart and will towards us, and if we pursue that with all of our hearts, we will be filled with the fullness of God. Then fear or any other evil thing will have no space left!
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18 KJV
Overcoming fear may be a process
There is a time to cast down and overcome fear, but it may not just be a one-time event; it may be a journey of recognizing the trained pathways of thought from fear and overriding them with the truth that is becoming our new reality. We can’t get ourselves all wrapped up in the awareness of fear or any other evil thing in our lives.
Our number one priority needs to be to seek God and line our hearts up with His. Out of the strength we receive in that relationship, we will have a firm footing to stand on to recognize and resist the enemy when he comes to tempt us. We will have a solid rock of truth that will support us.
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. Matthew 7:24-25 KJV
Faith over fear is a journey
Here’s where we need to have patience with ourselves and walk according to God’s grace and mercy by the leading of the Holy Spirit. For many of us, fearful patterns of thoughts, fearful projections into our future, and dread are so normal; we don’t really know anything else.
If we live according to the law, according to black and white thinking, “Because I have fear, therefore I am a sinner and unacceptable.” We will be drawn back in fear, guilt, and shame.
But if we can live according to the Spirit of God in which there is no condemnation but rather the Spirit of Adoption where we can cry Abba, Father, we can walk forward into our identity as children of God. We can begin to feel safe again and put our guards down, and we can ask our Heavenly Father to join us by His Spirit to help us grow up and out of these old, unfruitful ways of thinking.
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Romans 8:15 KJV
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 KJV
We are more than just Christians, we are children of God!
The amazing thing about the New Covenant in Jesus Christ is that we can now grow up into our identity as children of God and have our hearts and minds renewed by His truth and His Word.
The things of sin that we have been in bondage to don’t have to be our masters anymore because we now have an advocate in Jesus Christ and the opportunity to repent and move forward, by faith, into freedom and newness of life. It’s not a happening or a one-time event but a mindset, a pattern of life. We need to continually come to our Father and take His hand and believe His Word and walk with patience in the learning curve as we’re growing up in Him.
Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16 KJV
Are you ready to start to overcome fear?
If you recognize that you’ve been agreeing with the lies from a spirit of fear and dread in your life. Perhaps you’d like to take some time right now before Father God and repent to Him for serving fear and allowing it to project thoughts of evil into your future. Then choose to receive His forgiveness and ask Him to help you move forward in faith, to build your trust and hope in Him, and to be strengthened by the revelation of His unfailing love.
Give yourself an abundant measure of grace and mercy and patience because this is a journey, not a marathon. Let God lead you through it one step at a time. He will be faithful to complete the good work He’s started in you, and His plans for you are for good and not evil.
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform [it] until the day of Jesus Christ: Philippians 1:6 KJV
God’s loving-kindness and tender mercies will replace all fear
As you begin to feel safer in the loving arms of your Heavenly Father, fear will lose more and more ground in your life. We encourage you to move forward with hopeful expectations for the good plans that God has for you. Practice thanksgiving and praise God continually, that will help you establish His higher power in your heart. God is faithful, and He wants to lead you to His best plans and blessings for your life if only you will trust and obey Him.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. James 1:17 KJV
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 KJV
Blessings,
The Be in Health® Team
Would you like to read more articles related to how to overcome fear?
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Overcoming Fear of Disease, Pain and Death
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