Question – Elisa (South Africa): Dear Pastor Chris, how can one overcome fear, panic attacks and anxiety? Answer: Well, the three of them are closely related. You become anxious when you don’t know what lies beyond a certain level, a certain limit. You have panic attacks because of the anxiety and fear because of what you know—really, “think”—because of the conclusions you make out of your anxiety. The Word of God tells us “Be careful for nothing; [and that means have no anxiety about anything] but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” and then he says “And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” [Philippians 4:6-7]. So, have no anxiety. He tells you! Now, if you couldn’t stay without having anxiety, if you couldn’t stay without being anxious, he wouldn’t have told you to not be anxious. He knew you could be without anxiety and that’s why he said so. So, God only tells us what He knows we have the capacity to do. So, have no anxiety; be anxious for nothing, but let your heart become stable in prayer, in supplication, in thanksgiving. Next, you know fear which is the mother of all of this, of the panic attacks, of the anxiety: fear is actually faith in the ability of our adversary, faith in the ability of failure to destroy us, faith in the ability of darkness and evil to hurt us, faith in the ability of all the negatives to stand against us and defeat us. That’s what fear is. It is faith in the negative. So, how do you conquer fear? Because fear, like I said, is faith in the negative, to conquer fear you have to have faith in the positive, faith in God’s word. Now, you can’t have faith in God’s word if you don’t know it. So, the knowledge of God’s word is the beginning of your deliverance from all of this. “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” [John 8:32]. You can come free from all this things, because the truth makes you free. So, you need the knowledge of God’s word. Jesus said “…thy word is truth” [John 17:17]. So, the word of God is truth, you need the truth. The facts may be presented to you but truth is reality beyond the facts. What is the truth in your situation? What is the truth? Forget about the facts! The facts may be that there is a real threat in a situation, that could be the fact. But, there’s a truth beyond that fact and that truth is based on the ability of God, the love of God, the instruction of God. All of this, if you know, will garrison your heart in dealing with the crisis of life.
Posted on: Tue, 20 Aug 2013 09:22:18 +0000