I have a constant knot in my stomach.
My heart is always racing and I can’t keep my breathing even. My body is constantly displaying all the physical symptoms of anxiety even when my mind is relatively at peace.
This Coronavirus pandemic is frightening.
On top of all the fear that has been generated from this virus, my last surviving grandparent passed away last week. He was one of the most lovable men I have ever known. His death was a hard blow. I miss him every day.
My grandfather’s death has awakened me to the harsh reality that all the people I know and love will one day die. His death is just one of the first of many that I will experience throughout my lifetime. I can’t keep the question out of my head: who will be next? Will this virus claim the life of someone I love?
You don’t have to have recently experienced the death of a loved one to be wondering the same thing.
If we aren’t careful, our fear will consume us. It will taint and tarnish every single one of our days. It will crush us under it’s weight. It will cause us to suffer before the real suffering even occurs.
We must wage war against our fear. It is now more important than ever that we don’t let fear get a foothold in our lives.
Sadly, I do not know how to vanquish fear completely. I don’t believe this is an enemy that can be conquered overnight. Rather, the raging battle against our fear will be ongoing until Jesus calls us home or comes again.
Therefore I don’t have a simple answer for you on how to conquer your fear, but I can share with you how I fight it.
I am a highly anxious person. The battle against fear for me is sometimes a minute-by-minute battle. I am constantly fighting against this enemy. Just know that if you too consider yourself a fearful person, these battle strategies come from a fellow fighter, not a victorious conqueror.
So I will share with you how I am battling fear in the age of the Coronavirus. And even if no one else in the entire world reads this post and is encouraged by it, it will be good for me to put into words how I can actively fight against this enemy that threatens to overwhelm me.
I write this post just as much for me as I do for you.
The good news is that God has not left us without weapons and strategies to use in this war against our fear. He has equipped us for this battle and there are many ways that we can take our stand. We need only be willing to fight.
Defining Fear
In any battle, one of the most important first steps is to learn as much as you can about your enemy.
So we need to start by talking about what we mean by fear.
There is good fear and there is sinful fear.
Good fear includes the fear of the Lord. Fearing the Lord is good and right and it is something we are commanded to do. Fearing the Lord does not mean we are fearful of experiencing God’s wrath (we have Jesus to thank for that). It means that we have a right reverence for our God and are afraid of offending his holiness with our own unholiness. The book of Proverbs says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). We should strive to fear the Lord rightly.
There is also a kind of fear that looks with distress at the brokenness of the world. This is a fear for the eternal security of our loved ones and neighbors. This is a mourning over the loss of perfection and a right relationship with God that came as consequences of the Fall. This is a right fear.
But these aren’t the kind of fears that I’m concerned with in this post. The kind of fear we must do battle with is the fear for our well being and future. This kind of fear is also known as worry. And there is nothing good about worry.
Worry does not help you prepare for whatever God allows to happen.
Worry is suffering before the suffering even starts.
Worry is declaring to God, “I do not trust you.”
Worry is, ultimately, sin.
Over and over again the Bible tells us to fear not, do not be anxious about anything (Phil. 4:6), do not worry about tomorrow (Matt. 6:34), cast your anxieties upon the Lord (1 Peter 5:7).
We are commanded not to worry.
We have a God that we can trust. We have a God who only ever does things for our good and His glory. We have a God who sent His Son to die the horrible death that we deserve so that he might secure our future and our joy.
To worry is to insult the crucified Christ.
Would you look up into the face of Jesus as he’s hanging on the cross and say to him, “You can’t possibly have my best interests in mind”? Because that is exactly what worry does.
Therefore the very first step in battling fear is to repent and repent often. We must openly and honestly confess that we do not trust God and ask him to help us to trust him.
This worry, this fear for our well being and future, is the kind of fear we must do daily, hourly battle against. This kind of fear is from the Enemy and we must not let him get a foothold in our lives.
In no particular order, these are the kinds of things I am doing to battle fear and worry.
Set Your Mind on Things Above
One of my favorite passages concerning fear is Philippians 4:6-8:
(6)Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. (7) And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
(8) Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
In verse 6, the first command after “do not be anxious about anything” is “let your requests be made known to God.” Our first defense against fear is prayer: persistent, frequent, heartfelt prayer. Petition God without ceasing to continue being faithful to you. He will never stop being faithful to you. The result of this persistent prayer is a peace that surpasses our understanding. What a gift!
After this comes verse 8. And Verse 8 is one of the ways that we can accomplish verse 6.
During this time of increasing fear, I am determined to think only about things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy.
This means that I am limiting my entertainment consumption and personal conversations to involve only those things that build up and edify. I want the things I fill my mind with and talk about to encourage me not cause more stress.
This also means that I am silencing all unnecessary noise in my life. I have deleted all social media apps on my phone. I allow myself on Facebook only for the purposes of working on my blog’s page and I have enabled an extension on my computer’s web browser that kills my Facebook news feed. I need to know what is going on in the world but I don’t need to read everyone’s opinion about it.
I have also limited the sources from which I get my news. I get the majority of my news from The Gospel Coalition. If you click this link and scroll to the bottom of the page you can sign up to get Coronavirus news sent to your inbox. Not only do they offer me a Biblical perspective on what’s going on in the world, but every article points me to my ultimate source of hope: Jesus.
Silencing earthly noise and focusing on what is good and true helps calm my fears. The following are some of the good and true things I do think about.
Preach His Promises
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28)
Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:10)
My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8: 35-39)
Arm yourself with God’s promises in the battle against your fear. When I find that I am overwhelmed by my anxious thoughts, I preach to myself the things I know to be true:
- God loves me
- He upholds me and strengthens me
- He does all things for my good and his glory
- God is trustworthy
- He is always with me
- He will always be faithful to me
- God is in perfect control
- Nothing can separate me from Christ, the true source of my joy
Preach to yourself, daily and often, until the truths you know in your head comfort your anxious heart.
Focus on God’s Character
One of the best ways I stop worrying about myself is to focus on myself less.
I stop thinking about myself and I start thinking deeply about the character of God.
I woke up this morning feeling anxious and these verses about God were a comfort to me:
Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
behold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
He will tend his flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms;
he will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
Isaiah 40: 10-14, 28-31
This chapter from Isaiah talks about the magnificence, sovereignty, and power of the Lord. It compares people to grasshoppers. And yet this magnificent, sovereign, powerful God tenderly cares for those grasshoppers.
To stop worrying about yourself, think about yourself less. Fill your mind with the bigness of God.
Take Up Residence in God’s Word
This morning I had a hard time getting out of bed. I like to get up early, or rather I NEED to get up early, especially now, to spend the first moments of my day with the Lord. But recently fear has set in from the moment my feet hit the floor. My instinct is to go hide back under my covers and drift back into blissfully ignorant sleep. But knowing that I needed to get up, my husband came to my rescue.
He pulled out his phone and started reading Psalms to me. I listened intently and could feel my body relax as I let God’s Words wash over me. I soon pulled off the covers and went downstairs to have my quiet time.
Nothing has brought me more peace during this troubling time the way God’s Word has.
Any time fear starts to creep in, I grab my Bible and start reading. This doesn’t work like a good luck charm. The Bible doesn’t magically banish fear. But the words of God do bring an enormous amount of comfort. Reminding myself of who God is, and who I am because of who he is, puts things back into the right perspective. His Words are giving me life.
Fight Your Fear With Me
So I have a proposal for you. Here we are all cooped up in our homes. Bible studies have been cancelled. Church will take place online. We have extra and unexpected time on our hands.
I want to propose that for the next several weeks, you study the Bible with me.
I’ve been preparing to lead a study through the book of Colossians for several months now. We had our first meeting last week, and now of course we have to stop to keep each other healthy and safe.
But we don’t have to stop studying the Bible. In fact, now more than ever, we need to study our Bibles.
So I’d like you to walk with me through the book of Colossians. It will take about 8-10 weeks. You can join us either through Facebook (by clicking here) or by signing up for the Colossians Study email list (by clicking here). Every week I will post a video and a blog post to go with that week’s section of text. I’m hoping to be able to facilitate some discussion around the text in the Facebook group as well.
One of the best ways to fight fear is to battle it in community. Of course, now, our communities are solely virtual. So I’m inviting you to join this virtual community who will battle fear by journeying together through the book of Colossians.
Let’s push back the dark together.
Click here to join the Online Colossians Study via Facebook.