Life can present very tender moments of uncertainty that can either feed our fears, or feed our faith. What do you do when you’ve encountered a scary situation yet you don’t want to live life in fear? How do you learn to trust God with your problems and surrender our cares to him? There are so many questions and thoughts that rummage through our minds when life gets messy, but the phrase that gives me so much peace is this, “It’s a surprise to you, but it’s not a surprise to God.” God knows every single detail of our life. He knows our past, our future and our present. He Knows who we will marry, what job we will take and the names of our unborn children. Because God is faithful, we can trust that he will continue to show himself faithful when life get’s messy.

In this post I will share three tips on how to not live in fear, but live in faith! 

To begin, with every life lesson, there’s an opportunity to learn something new and gain wisdom. When life presents you with fearful encounters, expressing gratitude reminds us of who is in control. So, to intentionally live live in faith, and not in fear the first step is to express your gratitude to God and those around you. When we focus on what we’re thankful for, we dim the focus on our fears. Expressing gratitude for protection, comfort, care, support, provision etc always reminds us that God hasn’t turned away from us, and that he still has us in the palm of his hands. If you have been fearful lately, I encourage you to express your gratitude to the Lord.

The next thing that can help you not live in fear, but live in faith is by confronting your fears. For so long, I would be afraid to share my fears for fear of them coming true and all that does it create even more bondage to what God wanted to free me from. When you confront your fears, you expose them, and the more you expose your fears, the less they can grow in isolation. So what does confronting your fears look like? It’s perfectly okay to process your fears, observe and have time to think about them; but confronting your fears means not letting them stop you from living a life of faith that God has purposed for you. For instance, if you’ve ever been in a car accident etc, you can become fearful of driving— but confronting your fears means exposing them to God, and surrendering them to him so that he can give us the faith to truly trust that he will protect us and keep us in perfect peace. If you’ve failed your previous exam and have to get a certain score in order to pass the class, you can generate a test anxiety that hinders you from being at peace while you test, which could in turn harm the outcome of your score. Confronting your fears means acknowledging your fears, surrendering them to God and not letting them stop you from doing what God wants you to do. When you fall, God graces us to get back up again.

So, the last tip I want to share with you to help you not live life in fear, but to live life in faith is to continue pressing forward. Fear likes to cripple people and stop them from fulfilling the purpose God has for them. But we know that perfect love casts out fear. 

It is very crucial that once fear presents itself, we acknowledge it and keep pressing forward. If you’ve been in a wreck, your fear can try to prevent you from driving, but if God permits you to drive again then drive. Don’t let fear stop you from driving. If God permits you go out of town, then freely go out of town with no fear. Whatever God permits you to do, he will cover you in his wings. So, continue pressing forward by not letting your fears stop you from living life in faith, and fulfilling the purpose that God has for your life. The Lord is not surprised by the events that surprise us. He is not shocked by our fears. He wants to comfort us and give us the strength, courage and hope to press past them. When we press past our fears, we acknowledge that God is Lord of our life. When we push past our fears, we trust that he is in control, not us. 

Surrender your fears, cares and burdens to the Lord and allow him to give you perfect peace in him. I hope this post has helped encourage you to live life in faith and not in fear. Share with me tips that you implement to live life in faith below. I can’t wait to hear from you. Enjoy! 

Live Simply,

Shardae