For me, having faith over fear doesn’t mean that we will never get scared or be fearful in our everyday life. I believe it means is that we should constantly reminding yourself what the Word of God says about ourselves.
Our minds are often so full of the negative things that the world tells us about ourselves, about the world and about mankind, that we forget who we truly are. We start to fear for our families, our futures and what is going on in this world that we start to believe what we see instead of what we know God says. That is why it is so important for me to declare God’s word over my life daily, even multiple times a day.
A good example for how I apply this in my everyday life is when I was involved in a smash and grab incident. This was a few years ago and as it was happening I was extremely calm and seemingly unaffected by the incident. Or so I thought.
I started noticing small changes in my behavior as I would start to panic when someone was walking past my car or I would get flustered when stopping at a red robot. I even became hyper aware of my surroundings all the time, constantly fearful that someone was going to reach into my car and take something. Because of this I became scared to drive at night or drive with my windows down, I was scared of anyone walking past my car and all of this really started affecting my life in a negative way.
It was then that I started taking a scripture that spoke positively over that situation and repeat it to myself every time those feelings came up. I chose 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”, and when I felt feelings of anxiety and fear trying to overtake me I would repeat the scripture to myself out loud.
I would even go as far as breaking the scripture down for myself. I would tell myself that I was not given a spirit of fear and then reject fear over my life as it is not my portion from God. I would remind myself that God did give me a spirit of love, that I should love those around me right now, that I should pray for them because they are also God’s children. I would remind myself that I was given a spirit of power, that the power that lives in me is stronger than the power in this world. I would remind myself that I was given a sound mind, that I do not have to believe all the negative things that cross my mind, I can choose to renew my mind in Christ.
I would do this daily as I was confronted by feelings of fear and anxiety. I would simply reject these feelings, and remind myself of what God’s word says and speak the scripture over my life. As time went on I started noticing that I became less and less fearful to drive around town and I would no longer be worried if people came too close to my car when crossing the street.
It is so easy to be consumed by the negative things of this world. That is why I find it so important to remind ourselves of the goodness of God, to seek out his goodness and fill our minds with his word so that when we are confronted with anything from this world we are already so full of faith, the negativity won’t find its way in. After all faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Rom 10:17