But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.” Luke 2:10

There are things in life that happen that cause us to be afraid. God gave us our fear instinct/feeling, but He does not want us to live in fear all the time.

We must practice trusting. Our faith is like a muscle. We practice having faith and our faith grows stronger.

“Jesus reprimanded them. ‘Why are you gripped with fear? Where is your faith?’ Then he stood and rebuked the storm, saying, ‘Be still!’ And instantly it became perfectly calm.” Matthew 8:26

We are easily scared people. We can quickly become anxious and afraid if we are not paying attention. Maybe that is why God said, “Do not fear,” so many times in His Word. He knew this would be our struggle. He knew our brains were designed in a way that would be prone to keeping us safe, causing us to doubt and fear, and making us want to do what is easy. Our brains offer us all the reasons we should not do something. Our brains offer us all the reasons to be afraid.

Jesus came to set us free from fear.

Jesus came to offer us a life of LOVE.

We must choose to think loving thoughts instead of fear thoughts. We must do our part; decide and live intentionally.

Our brains default to fear. From fear, our brain naturally goes into a protective mode. Out of fear, our brain is naturally defensive and wants to hide our insecurities. Because of fear, our brain tends to be self-conscious and lack awareness. In fear, our brain naturally becomes judgmental, envious, resentful, and bitter. When we operate out of fear, our brain naturally goes to protecting self and serving self. Living in fear leads to misery. Living in fear is living small. Living in fear is hell on earth.

We must choose LOVE.

We must go against our natural tendency towards fear and intentionally choose love.

We must decide on purpose to retrain our brain to go towards love.

Living in love, from love, and with love… We must train our brain to be responsible for ourselves, take 100% ownership of our lives and what we create. We must practice being vulnerable and open. We must train our brain to believe we are resilient and strong. We must practice awareness. We must practice self-compassion. We must practice grounding ourselves in God’s love for us instead of expecting others to make us feel good about ourselves to feel loved. We must practice living from abundance trusting God will provide whatever we need. We must practice forgiveness remembering God’s forgiveness and acceptance of us. We practice grounding ourselves in God’s Truth about us so that we can show up in love to protect and serve others. When we live from love we create and experience love in our life.

It takes effort and practice and time to learn to live from LOVE instead of fear.

Love believes, really believes, that God wants good for me.

Love believes that God is working everything in my life for my good.

Love believes that God is in control, and nothing has gone wrong in my life.

Love believes that God is with me and that He will help me in whatever situations I face.

We choose LOVE. We decide to live from LOVE.

We must practice trusting and believing in God’s LOVE for us.

Our faith is like a muscle. We practice having faith and our faith grows stronger.

When we are anxious or afraid, which will happen, there are skills we can develop, tools we can use, to help us return to calm. We can take a few deep breaths. Or box breathe where you inhale for a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, exhale for a count of 4, rest for a count of 4, repeat a few times. Also, we can repeat The Jesus Prayer in our heads. “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me a sinner.” We can repeat a scripture or a Truth affirmation. These actions ground us in Truth and refocus our thinking on God and in His Love.

When we are anxious or afraid, instead of beating ourselves up for being that way, we can accept that this is how we are made, and we will be this way sometimes and that is okay. In the moments when we are anxious or afraid, we can get curious about what we are thinking that is causing those feelings. In the moments when we are anxious or afraid, we can choose to practice self-compassion and accept our humanness.

We choose to place our trust in God who strengthens us in any situation we face and is the only One who can do something about the situation.

Our worrying about a situation does not help improve anything, usually makes us feel worse, and wastes our energy.

We must practice living from love by intentionally directing our thoughts to God’s Truth.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9 ESV

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10 ESV

Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. Isaiah 12:2 ESV

do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 ESV

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Psalm 23:4 ESV

The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1 ESV

We must “work-out” our mind. We build belief by practicing believing. Then we ask our brains to find evidence for our new thoughts. Look for the miracles in your life. Look for all the positives, what is working, how you are showing up in love, for where God is providing.

We think if we change our thought, think a new thought, then our old thought should not come back. The negative, fearful, thoughts will come back because that is how our brains work. We must be onto our brains, recognize the old fear thought and reclaim our new LOVE thought. We put unrealistic expectations on ourselves that we “shouldn’t feel this way,” “shouldn’t be afraid anymore” for example. There are scary things that happen in life, and we may feel fearful about the scary thing from time to time and that is okay. Or whatever the feeling is we practice accepting our humanness. We recognize the feeling, allow it, practice self-compassion, and move through to LOVE.

We choose what we allow to ruminate in our brains. We must choose wisely and intentionally. Choose love and know the Joy Jesus came to bring!

I encourage you to practice choosing to live from LOVE.

I encourage you to accept, believe, trust the Good News of Great JOY!

We no longer have to live in fear. Amen!