We can learn to use FEAR as Information only!

In my community we enjoy saying fear is false evidence appearing real. That is somewhat true, but what we often miss is that fear is needed information in our pursuit of our purposes and plans. Even if we have created a multitude of reasons for not moving ahead with a particular plan, our fear can show us what we believe stands in our way. It is at the point of identifying what is standing in the way that we have learned from our fear.  Our job is not just to cut fear from our lives, but to use it more successfully as a tool to create what we need to create.
This week I have been learning from several of my friends what it means to learn from our fears and what we need to have in place to overcome our anxieties.  If you are reading this and believe you see yourself in one of my examples, don't worry it is probably only because so many of us have the same issues we believe everything is about us or it may be that I learned from you this week, and must thank you for being the lesson in my life this week.

My first friend, wants to have life the way she dreams it, but she is afraid none of her family will understand and they will ostracize her desire to be different and live differently than they do. We all desire to be a part of a family, group, community, church, or organization etc. Fear of separation looms large in all of us. How can she be true to herself and not lose her community?

Another of my friends is a pastor and needs more finances to do what the church believes it needs to do. What does he need to do to move from fear to enough finances? Should the church's agenda change to fit the finances they have or is there another answer to his fear of failure? No one wants to fail.  We see this failure as loss of ego, where we are humiliated and shamed by our inability to fulfill our role in a competent way.  What does he need?

Another friend is concerned that she can't care for her children in the way she should? Her fear is two-fold, being a terrible parent and failure as a working person.  Should we fear our circumstances?  Is there something to be learned in looking at where we are, are we to appreciate where we are before we can go forward into the purpose and mission God has created for each of us? Her fear is   loss of autonomy, as a non-working adult needing help from social services and fearing loss of ego.

None of the above situations are simple.  We so often want to fix everything for everyone.  This is not my intention here.  One of the hardest lessons from fear I have received is knowing who I am as a child of God. For you non-believers, you may begin your scorn of me now.  There is something in knowing who you are and what power you have because you are that person. This will not mean you will always remember and not fear, but when you do fear anything, remember you have the power of God, the anointing of the Holy Spirit and nothing can separate you from the love of God.  That love covers you and gives you everything you need in each situation.  You need to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.
Thoughts you need to compel your fear to instruct you will come and all you desire will be completed. Trust God and use fear.

Peace

FEARLESS or FEARFUL

There is a popular quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt about fear. He says, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." (Franklin D. Roosevelt, First Inaugrul Address, March 4, 1933.) I like the quote from Pallius in the first century, "What we fear comes to pass more speedily than what we hope". In other words what we give attention to really expands. Frederick Bailes talked about this in 1941 when writing Your Mind Can Heal You....When (someone) glimpses the truth that all the Universal Power flows through their body, they are able to to sit back in quiet assurance with a total absence of fear at the appearance of illness. For their fear has been created by a picture of themselves invaded by an enemystrong, cruel and merciless. What do you picture? How do you see your next year? Which is greater your fear pictures or your hopeful and promising pictures?

Fear is like a bad virus. At first it moves quietly into our psyche. After awhile it begins to fester and infect other thoughts and plans, until what might have been a great thing becomes something to frightening to even try. Sometimes we say that everything is good while we have just beyond the smile the thought of how it all can go terribly wrong. Living with hope and expectations of great things is healthy, wise and opens up things in us that can draw real life, joy, happiness and peace.

We shortchange our lives whenever we don't do all that is in us to do. Do you have a dream? Do you often wonder how much greater your life can be? Step out, get rid of fear. You know that FEAR is false evidence appearing real. Everything you need or want is available without fear.
Peace!