Overcoming Fear

Perfect Loves Casts Out Fear

By Pastor Shaun Nepstad

There is a lot that people are afraid of in life. Terrorism. Heights. Spiders. Confined spaces. Public speaking. Being alone. Fear is the unpleasant, powerful, and often debilitating emotion we feel when we sense or anticipate danger.

When we are in a dip, fear is not a faithful friend; it’s a ferocious foe. And for some of us, fear is the name of the pit we live in. I know. I’ve been there. I was deep in the dip of fear for a long time, and I couldn’t see a way out. As a kid, I worried about everything. By second grade, I had developed a stomach ulcer.

You’d think I’d just grow out of it. But you don’t grow out of fear. Fear is a spirit. If anything, you just grow older and switch fears. For me it led to panic attacks. Chest pains. Emergency hospital visits. Stomach pains that got progressively worse, to the point where I’d be doubled over, on the ground, in the fetal position for hours. There was nothing that could bring relief. It led to something called Ulcerative Colitis dropping down to a hundred and twenty-five pounds.

When I say it dominated my life, I’m saying that it controlled me. It dictated the direction of my life…for my first twenty-five years.

I’m thankful to report that God healed me, and I haven’t had a pain in seventeen years. Let me tell you the key to breaking out of the dip of fear. I broke fear not by trying to get more bold. It was getting more of God’s love. Focusing on and experiencing more of God’s love.

Fear cannot stay where God’s love resides. I began to focus on the love of God. Sing songs about His love. Read scriptures about His love. And after a while that spirit of fear broke off my life and it can break off of yours too. Depression and fear do not have to be a life sentence. You can climb out of the dip of fear and walk in God’s freedom.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
1 John 4:18