Addressing fear

Some significant keys in addressing fear: 

• Shift your identity (your sense of who you are; your significance, importance, value, safety) from the approval of others and base it on God's glory i.e. your true identity is based on who God is (the supremely valuable and most glorious of all) and His assessment of you as his beloved, not the assessment/opinion, actions of others or even (and sometimes especially) your own self-assessment.

We are designed to live in honor of God, not to ¹protect ourselves (physically or emotionally) i.e. our design (and therefore our purpose) is to uphold God's honor, not our own. In so doing, God says he will honor us (which includes ultimately protecting us and providing what we ²need most, though not necessarily what we want most at the time).

"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted..." – Jesus, Mat 23:12   

Our living for his glory impacts others.

The most important thing we can do is bring to others the most important "thing" i.e. our greatest accomplishment, value (and fulfillment) is in bringing awareness of God and his great worth to others. 

If our conduct (vs our words) says God is most important to us, we are proposing by that conduct He should be most important to them as well. How we conduct our everyday lives will either indicate He is or isn't most important, worthy of their trust and commitment, not just ours.

• We must understand the real lack of control we have in order to learn to trust in God's providence/ sovereignty/control, i.e. God does, is, and will provide what we need most and what is best as we live to honor him. Seek 1st the Kingdom of God and all these other things will be added. 

• You ultimately combat fear through action, not reasoning/thinking, only i.e. taking action on what you fear instead of convincing yourself you have nothing to fear. Your mind (reasoning) is necessary to assess the best course of action, but once assessed, step forward in faith and act. 

Doing the thing you fear confirms the fear is often far worse than the reality. Knowing God is with you regardless sustains you. He will never forsake us no matter what we go through or how much it appears otherwise. We are assured of this because God's commitment to us is based on Christ's perfect efforts/work on our behalf, not our imperfect efforts.

For several posts discussing the significance of our being designed for God's glory, click here.

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¹This is not to say we are not to take reasonable steps to care for ourselves. This simply means self-protection is not our focus. God is. i.e. how do we best honor him in all we say and do. 

This may result in taking actions that seem risky to some, such as doing ministry in a hostile environment, e.g. foreign missions in a region opposed to Christ, etc. However, pursuing God in a hostile environment is safer than pursuing safety itself. Just read the book of Jonah.

²Sometimes what we need most is to have what we depend on most, other than God, removed from us. Dependence on anything other than or more than God keeps us from experiencing our greatest good and joy, i.e. God himself.