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Here is a wonderful verse from Galatians 5:1: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
I do believe the most common thing that keeps us in bondage is fear. In his book Imagine Your Life without Fear, Max Lucado writes: “Fear corrodes our confidence in God’s goodness…And it turns us into control freaks…Fear, at its center, is a perceived loss of control.”
Now just think about that for a minute. Fear causes us to lose trust in God. Fear and faith can never coexist. So, note that any time fear is taking over your mind, faith has just been put out to pasture. When we lose faith in God and his goodness—though we never verbalize it that way, and we wouldn’t admit it—we begin to try to take control and do what we think is best. We do indeed become control freaks!
Fear Is Sin
The first thing you must do to be set free from fear is recognize how sinful it is for you to be fearful for that means you have abandoned your trust in God in that area. How dare we not trust our trustworthy God? This was the beginning of my learning to trust God many years ago. I finally realized that I was afraid to trust God. Whatever other fears I had, they began with my fear of trusting God. And it finally dawned on me that my fear of trusting God was indeed a sin against the God who is totally trustworthy.
We lose trust in people when they prove not to be trustworthy—right? They promised you something and didn’t come through. They failed you time and again, and you’ve concluded they just are not trustworthy. But has God ever failed you? Has one promise of his ever failed?
2 Corinthians 1:20: “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.”
I was afraid to trust God because I feared he had a plan for my life that was not what I wanted. I somehow thought my plan was better than his, and I couldn’t trust his plan because it might take me where I didn’t want to go. I couldn’t run the risk of allowing God to direct my path. Now, had you asked me at that time if I was afraid to trust God, no doubt I would have said “no.” You see, I didn’t see it for what it really was—a fear of trusting God. When it finally dawned on me that this fear was like a slap in the face of God, I was appalled at my sin.
That’s because I had begun—finally—to invest time and passion into getting to know God, and the more you get to know God, the more you believe in him and trust him. So, if there is some fear in your life, the root cause of it is that you are afraid to trust God in that place, which probably means you need to get to know him better. To know him is to trust him.
Pockets of Fear
Why do we trust God in some areas and not in others? Because we have pockets of fear—areas where it’s more difficult for us to trust than others. You may be able to identify the sources of that fear—the things that happened to you in years past that cause that fear. It’s usually a good idea to understand why there are some pockets of fear in your life that have not yet been abolished.
But it’s not a good idea to stay mired in that fear. You can blame others, but it doesn’t solve the problem. You can throw pity parties and feel sorry for yourself, but it doesn’t get rid of the fear. You can talk about it and think about it and re-tell it as many times as you like, but that never does any good—just makes it seem larger than it is.
First, you have to recognize that your fear is an attack of the enemy on your life. God never gives you a spirit of fear. Obviously, there are some things and situations where fear is appropriate. We teach our children to fear some things like fire, crossing busy streets, talking with strangers, rattlesnakes—things like that. But we should never want them to have a spirit of fear.
2 Timothy 1:7: “For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”
A spirit of fear is a prolonged, unsettling, ever-present fear for which there is no reason to fear. The spirit of fear is damaging and destructive. Romans 8:15: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’”
Paul called it a “spirit of slavery” when you fall back into fear. And he tells us we have been given a totally different spirit, the Spirit of adoption as sons. Now, an adopted child is one that is purposely and specifically chosen. If you know Jesus as Savior, it is because he has chosen you to be adopted into his family. Therefore, you have the Spirit of adoption—the Holy Spirit.
He told young Timothy that the spirit God has given us is one of power and love and self-control. So, here’s the question: Are you living with a spirit of fear or have you asked God to take that spirit from you and replace it with his Spirit of adoption?
I shared my pocket of fear with you and how it ruled my life for so long. Let me tell you about someone else’s pocket of fear. I think you’ve heard of him: Abraham. He had such great faith that he is recognized in the Bible’s Hall of Faith, Hebrews 11 as a man of great faith. And he was. He had faith that God would lead him to some unknown land and make a great nation from him. He had faith to believe that he and his wife could have their own son even in their old age. And he had so much faith that he was willing to offer that one son as a sacrifice because he believed God would raise him from the dead.
Surely Abraham could say, “I don’t fear anything, because I trust the Lord.” I mean, he wouldn’t be listed in the Bible Faith Hall of Fame if he was afraid of anything, would he?
Well, actually this great man of faith had a pocket of fear. When he was traveling in Egypt, on his journey to the promised land, Abraham was afraid the Egyptians would kill him because of his beautiful wife, Sarah. 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. He was afraid to die.
How could he have such great faith in most areas, but still have this pocket of fear? This is not only true of Abraham, but most of us have the same problem. 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.
What is your pocket of fear? Where do you find it difficult to trust a trustworthy God? It could be money or finances. That’s a common pocket of fear. If you can’t trust God to supply all your needs and you worry lots about money, that is a pocket of fear.
Or it could be the fear of being alone, which would include the fear of losing someone you love. Or the fear of rejection, which is a very common pocket of fear. If you’re afraid of people rejecting you, you’re caught in that pocket of fear. And we could go on and on: The fear of failure, the fear of health issues like COVID, etc.
Well, you know, anywhere you are fearful, you are in bondage to that fear. It controls you and causes you to do things that are harmful to you and others. It keeps you from doing other good things, and it destroys your peace and joy. Can you identify your pocket of fear—that place where you just worry a lot and you can’t seem to get rid of it?
It’s important to expose that pocket of fear, and then find the cure for it. And it should not surprise you to learn that the cure for fear is the Word of God. Once you recognize your pockets of fear, then find a verse or passage of scripture that addresses that fear specifically. That means, you take time to sit down with the Bible, asking God to show you his word of freedom from this fear for you. There is a specific promise in the Bible for your pocket of fear. Just start searching for it.
Then quote that scripture every time that fear starts to take over your mind. Say it out loud if you can. Throw the Word of God in the face of your accuser. Believe me, he cannot withstand God’s truth, so that is your weapon against fear. Use it, I mean literally use that verse like a weapon because it is your one weapon, and the only one you need.
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). So, that pocket of fear reveals an area where your love of the Lord is not perfect. If you love Jesus with all your heart, soul and mind, it will drive out that pocket of fear. So just keep focusing your mind on loving Jesus supremely, making him Lord in every area of your life. This will drive out those pockets of fear. When you dwell in any pocket of fear, you tend to spend less and less time with Jesus, less and less time in his word, and more and more time focused on yourself. That just makes the fear worse and destroys your faith even further.
I recommend that you put your pocket of fear in writing, then confess it as a place where you are not trusting God, write the scripture you find that will defeat it, and focus on loving Jesus more perfectly in that area. That will begin the process of setting you free from your pocket of fear.
As a child of God, you do not have to be in bondage to a spirit of fear. You can be set free. The question then is, are you willing and ready to take God at his word and drive out that fear through the power of his word? If that pocket of fear has long been entrenched in your heart and mind, you will no doubt have to do this repeatedly, but that’s okay. You’re building spiritual muscle, so just don’t give up and remember: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Galatians 5:1).