Victory Over Fear: Life’s Small Lessons

Fear is torment and who wants to live in torment? Most of us do not yet the Apostles Paul and John address fear as a reality many of us face. This week our devotional writers tackle the topic “Victory Over Fear.” May our faith be strengthened by God’s Word and encouraged through these devotionals.

A young woman entered her last swim class full of confidence. Although she wasn’t an Olympic swimmer, she could hold her own and had been doing well in the class. The teacher greeted the class and said the last part of the class is the diving board. The diving board sat a meager one foot over the water. The teacher explained that the students just needed to jump in the water and swim across the pool, nothing fancy. One by one each student completed the task. However, the confident young woman stood frozen. She had slowly moved to the back of the line as fear embraced her. With each step she took toward the diving board fear walked with her. She stepped onto the driving board and felt its slight movement under her feet and froze again. She could not move; everyone was looking at her. They were saying something but she only heard muffles.  In the humid pool, the young woman shivered and sweated profusely. The teacher asked the other students to get dressed and then helped the young woman down and spoke to her.

Twenty minutes later they were back. The class had been dismissed and it was just the young woman, the teacher, and the diving board. The class reentered as the woman stepped on the board, they cheered and encouraged her but fear blocked their encouragement. As fear held her tightly, she began to pray and recite scripture. Her go to scripture in anxious times was Psalm 23 but, in this situation, it was too long. Then the Lord spoke to her, “Daughter, I did not give you a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” The young woman and fear stood at the edge of the diving board, while fear discouraged her the young woman repeated 2 Timothy 1:7 over and over. Nonetheless, fear continued to torment her. Conversely, the Lord’s voice was louder, His love overpowered fear and the young woman with fear in tow, jumped off of the diving board and swam across the pool. Her classmates erupted into applause and as the young woman emerged from the water, she said, “Thank You, Lord”.

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father thank You for being the voice of reason when fear embraces us. Thank You for helping us beat fear in the small situations so when confronted with major situations we know where our power resides.  Thank You, for reminding us that fear is a manifestation of the enemy and that it cannot come from You. Help us Lord, to stand firm on Your precepts and not be afraid to stand up for You, to speak boldly about Your Son, Your Word, and Your Ways. Bring back to our remembrance how we should not fear because You are with us always (Isaiah 41:10). Forgive us when we allow fear to win. Forgive us when we allow fear to speak louder than You. Forgive us when we choose to dim our light. Thank you for the perfect love of Christ that casts out fear. Thank You, Lord for Your Son Jesus the Christ, who died for our sins and is the perfect example of love. In the matchless name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
By Sis. Pat Towns