Christian Counseling - "The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Fear Itself"

In the America of 2011, fear is an ever-present emotion for many. Fear is an equal opportunity offender. It can impact young and old, rich and poor. What do we have to fear? Well, for many, their fears are economic in nature. For others, their fears are about people we love who are in harms way in far off lands.

Whatever the nature of the fear, its effects on us are similar. Perhaps the worst effects are the feelings of impending dread as well as loss of control. As the fear grips us, we feel less and less in control of our lives. The feared situation and object seems to grow in size as we spend more and more time ruminating on it. As it grows, we feel more and more powerless against it.

The problem with the fear of a future event or possibility is that, since it has not yet come to pass, there is very little we can do in the present to deal with an event that has not happened yet. For example, many people today are concerned with losing their job. In this case, the fear is likely worse than the reality. Think about this for yourself. If you actually lost your job, you would wake up the next day, the sun would still rise, your family would still be there, and you would begin to cope. You would call people you know to begin networking. You might start sending out resumes. Certainly some of the things you would do after losing a job you could do now if you fear losing a job. In fact, it is helpful when you are fearful of something to examine whether there is something you can do today to help loosen the grip of fear.

There is a limit to what we can do today to prepare for something that might happen later. A wise person once told me that if what we feared actually came to pass, we would likely handle the dreaded event better than we handle the fear of the possibility of the event. Finally, I don't mean this next statement to sound trite. Remember that the God we worship is much bigger and more powerful than the whatever we fear. Join me in spending time in His word to gain a deeper understanding of not only His great power, but also His great love for us His children. God bless you as you work to conquer whatever fears grip you.