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(Mary) Do you have some pockets of fear—places where you find it very difficult to trust God? This year of 2020 has brought a blanket of fear over our country, hasn’t it? Over the world actually. And there are other areas of fear we struggle with—like fear of a person or certain people; or fear of the future –this coronavirus has certainly cast a fear of the future on many people. Lots of people struggle with fear of rejection. It has always been one of Satan’s favorite flaming arrows to try to keep us paralyzed by fear.
You might not see yourself as a fearful person, one who is controlled by fear, but without realizing it you may be harboring pockets of fear—places where fear has dug a foothold in your life and that fear in that pocket is causing you harm.
Sometimes those pockets are small, sometimes big, but they are places in our lives where we find it very difficult to trust God, and therefore that fear controls us in that area.
It’s interesting that when you look in Scripture, you can find some very stunning examples of people who had pockets of fear—and I’m talking about some great saints of old. For example. Abraham had a pocket of fear about being killed. Here is a man described in Hebrews 11 as a man of great faith. God called him from a prosperous and comfortable life and said. “Go to a land I will show you,” and Abraham simply obeyed. He packed up and left to go to a place he had never been to before, to leave his family and familiar surroundings behind. Even though he did not know where he was going, he went. That took great faith.
(Julie) He was able to believe that God could give him a son even though his wife was barren and they both were past the age of childbearing. That took tremendous faith.
(Alice) But what really marks Abraham as a great man of faith was his willingness to offer that miracle son—Isaac—as a sacrifice, and was about to sacrifice him.
(Mary) Abraham believed that God could raise the dead if necessary. Every time I read that story, I just shake my head at this man of incredible faith.
Yet, when he was traveling in Egypt, on his journey to the Promised Land, he revealed a pocket of fear.
(Julie) Abraham was afraid the Egyptians would kill him because of his beautiful wife, Sarah, whom they would want for their own. So, in fear he told Sarah to tell less than the truth—to say she was his sister—in order to keep them from killing him.
(Mary) You’ll find that story in Genesis 12, and as I read it recently. I thought, “Abraham, what in the world was your problem? You believed God in all these huge, gigantic areas, but you didn’t believe that God could keep you and Sarah alive in Egypt? Where was your great faith?
Well, Abraham had a pocket of fear, and it led him into sin.
(Alice) We all have these pockets of fear. We can have great faith in some areas, at some times, and then our faith falls apart the next day or the next hour or when we round the next corner.
(Mary) Paul wrote to the Romans: “The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15). Whatever you and I are fearful about, it’s not coming from the Lord. Of course, we have an enemy who loves to scare us to death about anything he can, because when we are fearful, it means we’re not trusting God.
What might be the most common pocket of fear?
(Julie) So often we’re fearful of not having enough money, lately with all the jobs that were lost because of COVID, that has really accentuated this fear. People are fearful of losing their job, of losing their house, of going bankrupt, of not being able to afford what they need or want.
(Mary) Money is at the root of a lot of our fears. Frankly, this has been a pocket of fear for me. For no really good reason, I used to imagine that I could lose my house, all my assets, assets, my retirement money, everything! I would allow my mind to take me into this cycle of fear. It’s an area God had to work on me—and still does at times.
Here’s what I learned to do with this pocket of fear, when it started to possess me. I would say to myself, “Okay, suppose all those things happen. Imagine the worst: No money, no income, no house, no savings, no retirement. You’d survive; somebody in the family or some close friend would take you in until you could get on your feet again. It would not destroy you.” Then I would make myself—and note that it is usually an act of my will, not my emotions—I would make myself claim a promise from the Bible.
Here are a couple of good scripture passages to combat this pocket of fear—money:
(Alice) Matthew 6:25-26: “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink: or about your body, what you will wear… Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”
(Julie) Philippians 4:19: “And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.”
(Mary) By exposing that pocket of fear to the light, by bringing it out in the open and forcing yourself to face the fear, it loses its teeth. It can’t bite you any longer, because you’ve accepted that the worst may and could happen, and if it does, God’s Word is still steadfast and he will deliver you.
Think about the fear of getting the coronavirus. Certainly no one wants to get sick, but you know, if the worst happens and you were to catch it, God is still sovereign over that virus, and the good news is, most people recover pretty quickly. But living under the constant fear of catching a virus is living in bondage.
So, a good first principle in dealing with pockets of fear is to bring them out in the open and talk to God about them. Then find a verse of scripture to counteract that pocket of fear,
The fear of being alone is a common fear also.
(Julie) This fear can really take you down the wrong path, and some people are so possessed by this pocket of fear, that they’ve come to believe that nothing is worse than being alone.
(Mary) I know; l used to be that way. I was fearful of being single forever, and lots of other singles share that pocket of fear
(Julie) Then that fear causes them to stay in relationships far too long, to allow relationships to develop which were obviously wrong from the beginning, and to put up with inconsiderate and harmful treatment from another person just to avoid being alone.
(Alice) The abused spouse is another example of this fear. Often spouses will endure all kinds of abuse just to avoid being alone.
(Mary) If you are struggling with that pocket of fear—of being alone—and you allow that fear to continue, it will grow stronger and stronger and start to control your life. And, obviously, you’ll be miserable. Will you bring that pocket of fear into the light? Think about it: What is so terrible about being by yourself?
(Alice) You can do what you want to do, spend your money the way you want to, eat when you want to and what you want to.
(Julie) And being alone is highly preferable to being with someone who is not right for you.
(Mary) If that is your pocket of fear, I encourage you to get it out in the open and expose it to the light. Does that mean you cannot have a meaningful life? Of course not! This fear of being alone is an unreasonable fear. Besides, if you will reach out to others and start helping others, your life will be so full of people and love and meaningful relationships, that you’ll covet some time alone.
Here are some scripture verses to combat the fear of being alone:
(Alice) Jesus promised he would never leave us or forsake us and this is found in Hebrews 13:5.
(Julie) Romans 8:38- 39 says that nothing can ever separate us from the love of God that we have in Christ. Those are two great promises from God to us when we’re fearful of being alone.
(Mary) The Word of God is our weapon against fear—and it has divine power to demolish strongholds. We need to use it—so I encourage you if this is your pocket of fear, fight back with God’s promises to you, and defeat that pocket of fear of being alone. It’s a monkey on your back, and you don’t need it.
Another common pocket of fear is rejection.
(Alice) Being accepted and liked and having the approval or others is more important to them than anything else, so that can easily lead to the fear of rejection. We all have this natural desire to be accepted by others, and if that desire is too strong, it can lead to a fear of being rejected.
(Julie) And when we are fearful of being rejected, we then allow that person or group who might reject us to have a lot of control over us. For example, if I live in fear that you may reject me, then you have a great deal of leverage in my life. I will do and say things to try to please you, to avoid upsetting you, and to gain your approval.
(Mary) The fear of rejection looks pretty anemic when you bring it into the light and expose it. Ask yourself, “Why? Why is it so important for me to have the approval of this person? Why am I allowing them to have such power over me?” Probably the truthful answers to those questions will surprise you and you’ll see how foolish it is to live with that pocket of fear.
And then there’s the fear of failing. When failing is fearful to you, it keeps you from doing very much because the road to success is filled with failures. Anything worth doing is worth doing wrong until you get it right! So, fear of failure will rob you of many achievements. Or it will drive you to perfectionism and workaholism.
It will be a great help if you’ll bring this fear into out in the open and expose it. Ask yourself, “So, what will happen if I fail? If I try and it doesn’t work out, will the world stop revolving?” The sooner you expose that fear to the light, the sooner you can find victory over it through God’s Word and prayer.
The really important question is “Why is it important for us to deal with these pockets of fear?”
(Alice) Because we know that fear never comes from God. We know it’s from the evil one.
(Julie) Any area of fear is an area where we are not trusting God, because faith and fear cannot coexist. And without faith it is impossible to please God.
(Mary) We can say that when we have a pocket of fear, we know that God is very displeased since it shows we 1 don’t have faith in that area.
Abraham had great faith in some areas but was afraid for his life when he was in Egypt, and even encouraged his wife to lie for him. But think about this: Abraham found himself in this predicament because he was not totally obedient. God never intended for him to go to Egypt: that was Abraham’s idea to avoid a famine. Again, Abraham couldn’t trust God to feed them in a famine, so he came up with his own plan and did it his way by going to Egypt. One fear led to another, and that caused Abraham to sin. Disobedience will get us into these places of fear, and fear will cause us to disobey.
John wrote that, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear… The one who fears is not made perfect in love” (1 John 4:18). Back to Jesus—loving him supremely, making him Lord in every area of our lives, focusing our thoughts on him, spending time in his presence, knowing his Word better and better. This will drive out those pockets of fear.
What is your pocket of fear? Will you bring it out in the open, confess it, find scripture to counteract it, and then focus on loving Jesus more perfectly in that area? If so, that fear will have to go, and you’ll be free from the control it has over you now. Truth sets you free, and Jesus is Truth. I urge you to pursue his victory over the pockets of fear in your life. You will please him when you do.