I recently had a conversation with someone who is fearful they are not a true believer. I was astounded by their confession, this is someone I admire for their walk with the Lord. Quite honestly, they are the LAST person I would suspect of having doubts of their salvation.
As I was listening to their heartfelt explanation of their fear, they looked at me and said, “You have dealt with fear in your life, how do you get past it?”
I paused and prayed silently. I grabbed their hand and told them to speak truth into their fear. I shared about my fear of being hurt while I slept, which made it nearly impossible for me to sleep for years. With the Lord, I was able to overcome my fear by quoting two verses in particular every night as I would fall asleep.
“When you lie down, you will not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.” Proverbs 3:24 (NIV)
and
“In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, LORD, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:8 (NIV)
It became a battle of truth versus fear and God’s truth won!
The key to overcoming a fear is to be specific in the verse or verses you mediate on to battle the fear. You have to zero in on the exact fear with an exact scripture.
Knowing what Jesus tells us in John 10:28 & 29 can speak directly to my friend’s fear. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”
Another verse is Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Nothing can separate us from the Lord, nothing or no one can take us from His hand!
You may be in a spiritual battle, follow Paul’s command to “put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes!” (Ephesians 6:11 NIV)
As we continued talking we quoted together all the armor and when we got to the “helmet of salvation” (Ephesians 6:17) we both got excited because I had earlier prayed for protection of their mind from the enemy. Look at what God tells us protects the head, “the helmet of salvation!” The one thing they were struggling with.
Ephesians 6:17 continues with “and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” God’s Word is our weapon to use. God’s Word is alive and powerful. Grab onto a verse, learn it, meditate on it, and speak it aloud!
