MY PLAN OF ACTION

1. LOVE IS THE KEY

I must know that I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I must know that I’m in His will and performing that which He’s called me to. I must know that there is no light that God has given me that I’m failing to walk in. I must know that I will obey Him in whatever He tells me to do, no matter how much that would fight against my own human desires. I must know that there is no known sin in my life that I have not confessed, made restitution for (if necessary) and asked God to give me victory over.

This is not as hard as it sounds. It’s simply spending sufficient time in the Word of God and prayer to find out what He says about every important aspect of life – and then obeying Him. “And why call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, He it is that loveth me…” (John 14:21). “Today if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts…” (Hebrews 3:7,8).

The voice of God is the Word of God and obedience is better than any sacrifice you and I can make. No matter how hard you try to break fear’s grip, if you are not abandoned to God’s will in your life (or at least willing to do His will as He shows you) you’ll keep fighting a “win-lose, win-lose” battle with fear.

2. IDENTIFY YOUR FEARS

Once you know your heart is clear (“If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence with God.” I John 3:21), go to work on the fear that has tried to embed itself in your life. First, isolate the fear by admitting it’s there and calling it by its name. I used to live in “Christian fantasyland” by only “confessing the positive.” This went to wild extremes, like claiming I wasn’t sick even though I couldn’t get up. That wasn’t being honest and facing the facts in order to go to work getting God’s answer.

For example, suppose a terrible fear of death grips your mind. How can you break its grip? I went to work seeing what God said about death, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil” (Psalm 23:4); “Christ-abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,” (II Timothy 1:10); “To be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (II Corinthians 5:8). Then I admitted that the reason I feared death was because I had grown distant from the Lord. I asked Jesus to become as real to me as a human being.

Check out your own fear in light of what God has to say about the subject. Get His opinion and tell Him you want to adopt His thinking until it permeates your life and evaporates that fear.

3. DON’T BUY SATAN’S LINE

In 1979, God told my wife Norma and me to leave a “ministry nest” we had feathered for some 18 years and journey east to a new call He would make known to us. We obeyed, but had a hundred different reasons for turning back, such as the death of two partners, the “impossible” task facing us to rebuild a run-down, 50-acre resort into a headquarters and center, and financial needs that made the Grand Canyon look like a pot-hole in the road.

I confess there were times we looked for the slightest reason to run—it didn’t matter what direction. But God gave us honest hearts that cried out in the crisis, “Father, in the human, we want to run. We want to give up. But Lord, we’re more afraid of getting out of Your will than of failing while trying to do Your will. As long as you want us here, make us stay. Give us the toughness to hang in one day at a time—and a few signposts to let us know that we’re still where you want us.”

God answered abundantly, the storm passed and fears gave way to the bright sunshine of God’s promises and events. Did you catch in that point another method for attacking fear? It’s to never buy Satan’s lie that God’s will is a miserable one. “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not grievous.” (I John 5:3).

When tempted to run from the storm, force yourself to remember that it’s safer being in God’s will in the storm than being out of His will in what appears to be calm. And remember, whenever God has another door of action for you, He will generally open a bigger and more effective door for your life (Revelation 3:8).