Leah Grace I’ve been thinking a lot lately about fear and the impact it has on people’s lives. Fear can affect a person on every level—physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Physically → a few common side effects of fear are headaches, heart racing, shaking, insomnia, and stomach issues.
Mentally → fear causes stress and overwhelm, makes it hard to think clearly & focus, and dominates the thought life.
Spiritually → fear isn’t always just an emotion—there are spirits of fear (2 Timothy 1:7) and they want us to believe their lies so that they can have an open door into our lives to cause more fear.
God has helped me see areas in my life that need to be freed from fear, and by His grace & with His power He is helping me to walk in victory over fear.
But how do we overcome fear?
Even as Christians, fear has become ingrained in so many of us that sometimes it’s hard to imagine living a life unafraid.
God keeps bringing me back to the simplicity of perfect love.
1 John 4:16-18 says,
“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”
As I was putting this post together, I was initially only going to quote verse 18. But I decided to read a few verses before it and something jumped out at me.
John said, “By this, love is perfected with us.”
I had never thought to look into what “by this” might mean. If perfect love casts out fear, then by what is love perfected with us?
I read it several times, and saw how this passage begins.
“We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this love is perfected with us….”
- Knowing & believing the love God has for us
- Abiding in love (which is also abiding in God)
I’ve been intentional lately to remind myself of God’s love for me & to walk in love with and for other people. When fear thoughts come against me, I have a strategy: rather than focusing on that fear thought/feeling—after I tell it matter-of-factly that it doesn’t have power in my life in Jesus’ name—I focus on God’s very very very real love.
I recognize that God’s children have been set free from the power of fear, so we are NOT victims to the thoughts & pictures & feelings that can sometimes feel so overwhelming. As Christians, we don’t have to cave to fear any longer. This ends now.
Our heavenly Father loves us so much and delights to give us good things (Matthew 7:11)! If His word says not to be afraid, then there must not be anything to be afraid of—because our good Father takes perfect care of us.
God’s love is so much greater than any of us will ever fully understand on this side of heaven… but I believe that if we ask God to perfect us in love and continually seek Him, He’ll show us more of His love than any of us could ever imagine. I’m excited to see how perfect love casts out fear from all of us! 💖
I love this post, Leah. Thank you so much. <33
Thank you! I feel like victory over fear is a message that isn’t shared enough, and sometimes we don’t realize how true and powerful God’s love actually is.
Yes. 🙂
Leah, I so needed to read this. It’s something God has been teaching me hugely. Thank you so much for sharing! <3
Yay! I’m so glad. Thank you, and of course (: I love when the Holy Spirit shows the same thing to multiple people at the same time… it feels like He’s confirming the message and it’s also just so encouraging <3
What a beautiful post. The simple truth, nothing else. That’s what we need. Thank you, Leah!
Thank you <3 You're welcome!!