I have some important news for you on today: the Father wants you to stop focusing on the fears in your life. Anytime His children walk in fear, they are not walking according to His will and purpose. The Father wants you to keep your thoughts moving forward and not allow fear to paralyze you. Fear will stop you from reaching your highest levels in God. It will stop you from moving forward in faith, and cause you to believe that which is in front of you (or what you are facing) is bigger than a God who has given you the power to conquer it. The enemy has a tendency of inflicting fear on God’s people to stop them from moving forward. If the enemy can stop you from moving, he can stop you from reaching the destination the Father is sending you to. If he can keep you in fear, he can cause you to doubt yourself, your goals, your passion, and even doubt God- that’s where the enemy’s heart is really at. If the enemy can cause you to doubt the Father, he can cause you to doubt every promise He has for you and what He made to you.
So where does fear come from? Second Timothy 1:7 says, “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.” Fear is what the enemy imposes on you as an attempt to stop you from destroying his schemes and works. If he can keep your mind on fear, your mind is no longer focused on the Father.
So many women operate out of fear and they don’t even realize it. They may not come out and state that they are fearful about a certain issue or situation, but their response to it speaks in high volumes. A woman could live in fear that she is going to spend the rest of her life alone- or die alone- so because fear is now ringing in her ear louder than the voice of God, she ends up in a relationship/marriage that causes her more harm than help. A woman- who is a single-parent- could live in fear believing that she doesn’t have enough money to provide for her children so she goes out and either get multiple jobs or constantly work extended hours on one job to make more money. But while she’s gaining more income for her household, her children are either lacking attention, feeling unloved, or feeling unwanted. Or what about the woman who is so fearful of losing her husband, she conforms to his requests and expectations (whether right/wrong, good/bad) and how he thinks she should be while losing the identity of herself in the process. But do you know what’s the opposite of fear? It’s faith.
Hebrews 11:1 describes faith as being “…the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is believing God’s promises for you when the reality isn’t lining up with the revelation. It is being able to see the end while you are still living in the beginning of your story. It means to own something in advance before you possess it in person. Now earlier, I gave some examples of how fear can override faith, but Mark 5:25-34 shows us what happens when faith is placed over fear.
This story revolves around a woman who had a prolonged, uncontrollable issue of blood for 12 years. This means from the time she woke up, to the time she went to sleep (and even while she was sleeping) this bleeding flowed like water from her body. She was seen by numerous doctors during that time, but none of them were able to help her so instead of her getting better, she got worse. All the money that she had was now gone due to her attempts to get this issue resolved, but little did she know, she was about to encounter the Great Physician Himself.
In this passage, Jesus is surrounded by large amounts of people. He was trying to get pass the crowd because a synagogue ruler named Jairus begged Jesus to come to his house and lay hands on his dying 12-year-old daughter. As Jesus was passing by, the woman heard about Him and what He had done and although she now knew that His healing record spoke for itself, she was now faced with another problem. Because the crowds of people were all over Jesus, the woman did not have direct have access to Him. This meant the woman had to pass through the crowd from behind in order to reach Jesus. There will be times in your life when you have to press through your problems, situations, and circumstances in order to reach the blessings that God has for you, especially when you know that He has already promised them to you.
In spite of all of the people, this woman was able to touch Jesus’ garment because she said to herself, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” She had enough faith to believe that touching the Savior’s clothes would heal her. But you know what? She was right. Immediately after she touched Jesus’ garment, the woman’s bleeding stopped and just like that, she was healed, but here’s where it gets interesting. When the woman touched Jesus, His power had left Him so while He was still standing within the crowd, Jesus turned around and asked, “Who touched me?” Now if the disciples were living today, their response probably would’ve been, “Come on, Jesus. You see all of these people touching You, grabbing You, throwing themselves at You and You want to know WHO touched You, really?”
Jesus started scanning the crowd to see who it was that caused His power to leave Him. When the woman realized that she had been healed as a result of touching Jesus, and could probably sensed that He was looking for her, she fell before Jesus and told Him everything that happened. Jesus did not scorn or humiliate this woman for what she did. He did not respond in a hateful or an offensive manner towards her. Instead, He responded by saying, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering (Mark 5:34).” Because of an act of faith, she was healed and restored. But what if she would have operated in fear? What if she choose not to act on her faith? What if she would’ve told herself, “All these people are already crowding Him, so I’m not going to try to touch Him.” What if she never admitted that she was the one who touched Jesus?
This woman gave a beautiful demonstration of what faith over fear looks like. She did not allow anything (not even her own issues) or anyone stop her from reaching the Savior. You have to feel the same way. No matter what your issue is or how bad it seems, don’t ever allow fear to override your faith. Even when the obstacles appear to be obvious, have faith to believe in God anyway.
My prayer is that God’s daughters not live in fear, but instead, live in the faith He has given you. That you will not allow the enemy to stop you from reaching the Father for if you do, you will not be able to reach the blessings that He has for you. That if you take one-step of faith, God will take the rest of the steps for you and lead you to where you need to be- living fearlessly for Him- in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
