How to face your fears is a daily event, practice, and discipline!
What do you do with the fears you face?
Run from them? Turn away? Place them aside?
Or perhaps you stand firm, feet well grounded, core of your being solid and you simply, defiantly and humbly face your fears head on with God’s guidance and glory!
“I fear for my son” was my friend’s matter of fact statement the other day. The gravity of the fear hung in the air like a lead balloon, heavy yet still suspended in the air. There’s great reason for my friend’s fear and there’s probably more reasons than we care to count on why it would be better, easier and more simple if my friend would turn his face and his heart in the opposite direction and saunter away.
Gideon, the famous warrior of the original “300” man army shows us how to face your fears!
FEAR as an acronym can suggest a couple of things:
Fear Everything And Run or…
Face Everything And Rise
Gideon chose the latter of the two!
It’s curious to see Gideon in facing and rising was still fearful. Yet, the fearfulness did not keep Gideon from facing the fears he had to encounter.
Let’s take a look at how Gideon and how you can broach the subject of “How to Face Your Fears.”
Gideon was an Israelite whose people were taken over by the Midianites for seven years. In the midst of this captivity two of the Midianite gods, Baal (The Storm God and Bringer of Rain) and Asherah (Fertility goddess symbolized by a pole) were placed in many of the Israelite’s homes.
Gideon’s family was no exception.
God commanded Gideon, “Tear down the Altar of Baal and cut down the Asherah Pole.”
First thing in How to Face Your Fears is accepting the reality God will never command or guide you to do something all the while abandoning you as you approach the fearful task at hand.
Listen to how Gideon responded, “So Gideon took ten men of this servants and did as the Lord had told him. But because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night.” (Judges 6: 27)
I love this!
Even though Gideon was still afraid, he found a way to accomplish the fearful task by doing it at night versus doing it during the day. When facing your fears take the time to pray, and think of the numerous ways the “fear” before you might be handled.
Secondly, in How to Face Your Fears clothe yourself with the Spirit of the Lord.
You can imagine the mayhem created by Gideon when the sun rose the next morning on the village where the gods of the Midianites were found to be dismantled, floundering on the floor, useless and destroyed.
The men of the town knew Gideon was to blame and the mob mentality ruled the day as they came after Gideon.
“But…”
I love this word! But!!!
This terrible thing is about to happen.
The men, the posse, the mob are going to rip Gideon to shreds.
The momentum is building, the fever is high, the faces are red, the muscles are glistening.
“But… the Spirit of the Lord clothed Gideon.” (Judges 6: 34)
This raises a great question when addressing how to face your fears.
What are you clothed in?
Paul’s letter to the church of Ephesus tells us what kind of clothing, what kind of armor we are to clothe ourselves in when you face your fears.
1. Fasten the Belt of Truth
2. Breastplate of Righteousness
3. Shoes of the Gospel of Peace
4. Shield of Faith
5. Helmet of Salvation
6. Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. (Ephesians 6: 10-20)
Clothe yourself with these six pieces of the armor of God and you are in fantastic shape to face your fears.
One quick note – Take another look at the armor. You will notice nothing protects your back. Therefore, in order to address your fears you must face them. That is where the greatest guarantee of protection can be found. If you choose to turn and run from your fears your backside is completely exposed for an easy strike!
Finally, in How to Face Your Fears, God will provide what you need to face the fear (emphasis on NEED), not necessarily what you think you need.
Gideon assembles an army of 32,000 men. He is good to go! Everyone is fired up and ready to take on the Midianites after seven years of ravaging and abusive captivity.
Here’s where the you almost have to laugh at the outrageous humor of God’s next statement. Let me paraphrase.
“Gideon… um… hate to tell you this, but (there’s that great word again!) you have too many men!”
What???? Doesn’t Gideon need all the men he can get to face this fear of taking on the enemy.
God tells Gideon he has too many men because if the 32,000 man army gets the victory then they will be susceptible to the temptation of giving themselves the credit for the victory instead of God receiving the credit.
God gives some of the men a way out. God instructs Gideon to say to the army, “Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.” Then 22,000 of the people returned and 10,000 remained.
Notice sixty-nine (69) percent of the army got up and went home! Oh my!
Gideon had to be thinking, “Ok, no worries! I still have 10,000 men. We are good.
BUT…
God once again came around for the same reason and said, “Gideon… um hate to tell you this, but you still have too many men!”
Next thing you know the army of 10,000 becomes an army of 300!
Now Gideon is dealing with an army whose numbers amount to less than one percent (.009375 to be exact) of what he had when he started.
If this wasn’t outrageous enough as it is, God tells Gideon to give each of the three hundred men, not spears, javelins, shields, Molotov Cocktails, AK47’s, grenades, tanks and machine guns.
Oh no… God tells Gideon to give each man a trumpet (You read that right!), a jar (You read that right too!) and lastly a torch to place inside the jar.
Gideon and his army of 300 break out into companies of one hundred men and at the precise moment in the middle of the night, they blew their trumpets, broke their jars, raised their torches and shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
Guess what?
The Midianites ran like crazy!
Seven years of captivity run out and run over by 300 trumpets, 300 broken jars and 300 lighted torches.
How to Face Your Fears?
You do not need as much as you think to overcome and vanquish the fears which might have held you captive for the last seven years or more.
Gideon’s story proves when you are at your least, God can be at His greatest in teaching you How to Face Your Fears and give God the glory in your victory parade!
Laugh Often And Fear Not!
David!
