Exchanging Your Fears

By |Published On: August 23, 2017|Categories: 4-Minute Radio Program|

Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a revealing question.

A woman once asked me, “Joni, you seem so confident. You seem to fear nothing. Have you always been that way?” Well, inwardly I had to laugh. If she only knew the knots I feel in my stomach before I speak to a crowd, or the times I’m scared stiff to sit in front of a blank canvas with a paintbrush. If this woman only knew the times I lay awake at night worrying about deadlines, fretting that my words offended a co-worker. I’ve got such a long way to go before my “fear of man” is exchanged for a healthy “fear of God.” What’s a fear of man? Well, it’s making an idol out of deadlines, fearful that you won’t meet other’s expectations. Or it’s being afraid to fail in front of people, like I sometimes do when I get a Bible verse wrong when I’m speaking. For me, it started in my childhood, scrambling to keep up with three older, more athletic sisters. As a four-year-old, I would cling to the saddle horn as my sixteen-hands-high horse galloped behind, you know, the horses of my sisters. I did not dare tell them how scared I was!

My whole life’s journey has been a long road to put aside those insecurities. But my wheelchair, oh my goodness, it has really helped me overcome that fear of other people. At first, my affliction made me feel more insecure. But over the years, God used my quadriplegia to force me to sit still, quit competing and comparing, and be quiet before God. That’s when I began to develop a healthy fear of the Lord. The way I saw it, people are only as secure as the source of their security. If we are secure in Christ, then we have every reason to be confident. And believe me my wheelchair throws me into the arms of Jesus each and every day. And of that, I really am confident!

Christian psychologists say that good mental health springs from two things: security and significance. We find security in who we are, and we find significance in what we do. Acts Chapter 17, verse 28 puts it this way, “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” There you have it. Since Christ is the source of our peace, joy, strength, and rest, and in Him we live and move and have our very being, we can be secure and feel significant when we place our trust in Jesus. So let me break that down for you. Who are we? As Christians, we are free from the power of sin. We are children of God. We are co-heirs with Christ. And what is it we do? Well, as Christians, we’re free to truly love others and serve the Lord. We have a specific role to play in the advancement of Christ’s kingdom on earth. So friend, right there you got your security and your significance. You can be secure in Jesus, and whatever you do in His name, that’ll give you significance.

I’ve written more about this in a booklet that I call “Breaking the Bonds of Fear” because I see so much fear and worry and anxiety and stress in the Christian community. And friends we can do better than that; we can move beyond that. So get started by visiting joniandfriends.org/radio today, and ask for your gift “Breaking the Bonds of Fear.” It’s filled with practical insights to help you get rid of that fear of others and start fearing the Lord in a healthy, respectful way. Again, it’s yours for the asking at joniandfriends.org/radio. Finally, would you pray with me: ‘Oh Jesus, there’s so many times when we feel afraid and insecure. But today we recognize that in You, we need not fear—our life is secure because we’re Your children, and our life is significant because You’ve got a service for us to do. In Your name, Amen.’

© Joni and Friends

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