From Fear to Faith - Damilare Bello

From the inception, fear has been an archenemy of man; a monster that has tried every attempt to crown itself over man, turning man to its prey. At first, man was king in his kingdom, without fear. However, after giving in to the lies of the father of lies, it opened the door of their heart to allow fear take dominion from their eyes, and they had served this monster until the coming of Christ.

Like an invisible enemy, it would crouch into people’s hearts by reason of what their eyes and ears and heart accommodate. It hollows out their inside, until their resistance and strength is spent and they suddenly break down. Fear would secretly gnaw and eat away at all the ties that bind a person to God and to others, and when in a time of need that person reaches for those ties and clings to them, they break and the individual sinks back into himself or herself, helpless and despairing, while hell rejoices.

 

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. A windstorm arose on the sea, so great that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. And they went and woke him up, saying, “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, you of little faith?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a dead calm. They were amazed, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?” Matthew 8:23–27:

Some of the fruits of fear are loneliness, helplessness, etc. They give one the feeling that there is no way out, creating in one this raving impulse to get oneself out of this hell of hopelessness. Fear stares at one in the face and makes threats. And when you experience fear, you know quite alright that peace is lost within you. And that only tells how evil and monstrous fear can be.

But we are not of them that fear. We are rather of them that believe in the perfect love that casts out fear, or better still, the perfect God that casts out fear.  For God is love, and the love of God that has soaked our heart by His spirit drives away every fear that the enemy brings. And so today, we stand boldly anywhere and everywhere, like in the days of the Apostles to proclaim the word of God with love.

We do not give in to the lies of the devil that makes  us feel skeptical about what tomorrow holds, what we will eat, drink, wear, etc. Rather, we substitute every form of fear with a faith that is stronger than fear, and more certain than logic. The media might continue to promote fear, circumstance might not cease to breathe negativity, but so long Christ lives in us, the wind and the seas lives to fear us, and not the other way round.