Fear: The Enemy of Your Faith

What is fear keeping you from doing today? Is there something that you are aspiring to accomplish, but are allowing fear is holding you back? Fear interrupts your ability to operate in faith. Fear is the twin of doubt and the enemy to your faith. Fear and doubt keep you from walking in faith. It is a negative cycle that prevents you from receiving answered prayers and robs you of an abundant life. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen and it gives us assurance about things we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1, NLT).

Many times our prayers go unanswered because we have allowed fear to enter into our hearts. You cannot have both fear and faith operating at the same time. That is called being doubled-minded. A double-minded man should not expect to receive anything from God, according to the Bible (James 1:7, KJV). You are either walking in faith or in fear. Sometimes we think it is noble to worry about something otherwise we seem careless.(what does this mean?) To the contrary, fear is an enemy that traps people in and keeps them from seeing the wonderful working power of God in their lives.

I love what the Amplified Bible says in 2 Timothy 1:7: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind." You have to understand the fact that fear did not originate from God. We know that God is love. Therefore, He does not have fear to give.

Fear will prevent you from enjoying the good life. Many people are paralyzed from moving forward in different areas because of fear. It could be fear of relationships, stepping out into new territory, fear of confrontation, fear of illness or fear of not having enough - the list can go on and on. Have you ever read the story of Job? Talk about tragedy! Job recognized early on that his fears caused some of the negative outcomes in his life. He says, "What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true." (Job 3:25, NLT).

When I decided to step out and launch my website www.beautysecretsspiritsoulbody.com, it seemed like all of a sudden fear entered my mind. My greatest fear that I had was rejection by health experts who would decline my request for partnering with me by supplying articles for my website. I wrote letters to several doctors and health experts and shared my vision with them for Beauty Secrets. I had thoughts of "Your emails will get lost, they won't have time, they won't reply." I realized that if I was going to pursue my passion, I was going to have to resist fear and have faith.

I knew fear was the enemy of faith in my life. If I was going to see this project come to fruition, I had to trust God. I had to b e confident because my faith would determine whether or not I would see a positive outcome. Whenever fearful thoughts crept into my mind, I would refuse to entertain them and turn my focus instead on faith-filled thoughts.

One of the doctors I contacted, someone that I admire greatly rejected my request to publish his health articles due to his demanding schedule and graciously wished me luck (sent via email). I was disappointed to say the least, but I did not give up. I had a few months before the website launched and my focus on faith filled thoughts enabled me to keep on believing. I really had my heart set on this particular doctor that I had been following for years who has made an impact on my family's health. What happened next was a miraculous intervention.

A month later this doctor was scheduled as a guest speaker at my church and to shoot a television show with my Pastor on "Stress." An associate pastor approached me asking me if my husband and I could pick up this doctor and his wife from the airport. We would need to drive them back and forth from the church and hotel while they were our guests for a couple of days. I was thrilled and could not even express how excited I was for the opportunity. We picked up he and his wife and immediately we all connected and had great conversations on health related issues, of course. I hesitated to share the rejection letter with him. I did not want it to be an awkward moment, and thought at some point, I would bring it up if it was appropriate. After all, we were going to be driving them back and forth from the church to their hotel for the next two days.

It wasn't until we arrived at the airport that I had the opportunity to bring up the rejection letter. It was in our final moments together that a conversation sparked the subject. When I told him about the letter that he rejected, we laughed as he and his wife stepped out of our vehicle, gave hugs and said farewell. I was granted full permission to use any and all of his health publications on my website.

That was a divine moment!

Fear, the enemy of faith, has no victory in your life when you make a decision walk in faith. "Nothing is impossible with God." (Luke 1:37, KJV)

"You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith." ~Mary Manin Morrissey

Comments

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Great article, Duong! I loved what you said in the very beginning about fear being the twin of doubt. How wonderful to hear the testimony of God's intervention with the doctore--He is soooooo good!

Checked out your website too--beautiful--I bookmarked it!

Blessings!

Posted by: Meredith | December 10, 2008 at 08:35 AM

I loved and needed this today thank you!

Posted by: Venus | December 10, 2008 at 03:37 PM

I love it! So often we allow our fears to keep us from experiencing ALL that God has in store for us. Thanks for the reminder to step out in FAITH, and to let God handle the FEAR!

xoxo,
Melissa in Mel's World

Posted by: Melissa in Mel's World | December 10, 2008 at 05:58 PM