Recalibrate Our Fear Processor

Dear brothers and sisters, fear is a frequent visitor of our hearts and minds. It could be fear of loneliness, fear of being judged, fear of incompetency, fear the lack of love, fear of the future, fear of financial difficulties and many more. Recently, I just watched the new Disney Pixar movie, called Luca. It is about a boy and his other friend who are sea monsters but can turn into human form on land. But when his friend was caught by the humans, instead of standing alongside his friend, Luca joined the humans to avoid revealing his own identity. This is a very relatable scenario to many of us. There could be times that out of fear of being the odd one out, or being judged differently from the majority, we stand on the side of what seems safe and comfortable. So fear can take on many forms in our lives. But the truth is, fear is mostly linked to our unbelief. Satan knows where to strike in the depths of our hearts to give us fear, therefore, he specially attack areas where we are insecure about, worried easily about or have the most concern over. Then, he injects many kinds of deception and insinuations to grow our fear. That is how many have steered away from the truth and our love gradually grows cold. However, we must know that God is never turning a deaf ear on the different issues we are faced with. He is never powerless in our problems but on the flip side, He is entirely sovereign. ” Now, brothers and sisters, the Lord is like a father to a child. He oversees all things about us, is never too far and most importantly, He is near to those who seek Him. But when fear hits us, these truths will be warped into doubts, of uncertainty of His faithfulness, the need to care for our own well-being above the rest or internalising all kinds of information we see on the internet. So now, especially in a world that is facing all kinds of challenges, like the shifting circumstances around us, let us take time to examine our current fear factors and recalibrate our spiritual perspective in all things.

An effective fear processor

We need to first ask ourselves, how are we processing our fears? How do we deal with doubts and worries that comes in? When it comes to having a truly effective fear processor, it needs to have a few things.

1. The Right Target

Like I mentioned, the fears in our lives stem from an unbelief of who God is, what His plans are and our identity as we go through it. It is shaken and challenged by the flow of the worldly culture and insinuations within ourselves. However, most of the times, instead of dealing with the unbelief, turn back to God’s truth to look at things, we target the surface of our problems. We try to fight fire on the outside. For example, we have some fear of conflict with family members and we try to tolerate them on our own terms, even though, many times, we are justifying within ourselves about how right we are. But this is only a platform for accumulation of bitterness and grumbling, which may escalate to bigger hurts in the future. However, if we process this fear by looking at the right main target, which is the innate sinful nature of men, Satan’s works within the relationships and the need for God to intervene in our hearts, that gives us more wisdom and a more complete picture of God’s purposeful leading. Be it to understand the heart of another behind their words or actions, mend some misunderstandings, interceding more for our family members or to get an “upgrade” in the lesson of love. So the right fear processor will target the root of fear in our lives, not just cope with the surface issues.

2. The Right Information
Next, it is important that when we are in a rut, we get the right source of advice. When we are anxious or unsure about something, it is important that we read or refer to the right information to process our fears. There are many information on the internet and even scrolling through social media can, at times, give us added fears and confirm the wrong ideas in our minds or stir up the wrong feelings in our hearts. So where should we get the right information from? Our fear processor has to retrieve the right perspective through God’s every promise written in His word. We have to rely on God. Just as David said in Psalm 56:3-4, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” When David said this to the Lord, he is confessing the dangers, struggles and reality of the fear he is going through. He is admitting his inability before his problems and instead of using his own solutions or solutions of the world, he is turning entirely to God, as his source of all information and reference. Now as we do so as well, grace through our reliance will follow. As we rely on God’s Word, fighting off the temptation and tendency to proceed with our own ways, God’s promises will be like a solid rock. It will take root in the things we do and we will not be easily anxious but have a steady heart, being able to discern, to love others, to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit or to fulfil our calling. Isaiah 28:16 says, “So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.” So brothers and sisters, we need to process our fears through the word of God because it is an ever-present hope and foundation in all circumstances. We must remember that He is our Saviour, Healer, Provider, Strength and Protector. When we gather all our information and truths in Him, we will be more and more unshaken in the many struggles we go through.

3. The Right Direction

Finally, the right fear processor will also point us in the right direction. Instead of just solving small fears after fears, it should direct us to solve the matters of our hearts, then moving onto practical actions, not the other way round. Sometimes, we may go through our fears by ignoring it, by tolerating it, or running in the other direction to escape from it. Of course, I am not saying we should just face our problems head on. There are many ways that we can deal with our fears. However, once we have gotten a blessed perspective from the right Information, that is God’s promises, we have to really work by the Holy Spirit’s guidance, instead of our preference. If we fear being reprimanded but we know we have done some wrong, we should be convicted in spirit to speak to the person and apologise nonetheless. If we fear our child’s future, instead of jumping quickly into savings plans or enrichment classes, we should really seek God’s counsel on our purpose for wanting to do something and the way we want to raise our children. There is no sure answer to the direction we should be headed because we all have different spiritual nature, conditions and calling. But one thing is for sure, if we humbly and pure-heartedly come before God, to seek His direction for us, surely goodness will follow through as we become greater discerners and processor of the fears in our lives.

Brothers and sisters, as we accept God’s complete love for us and become more one-hearted in submitting to the Lord’s leading, fear will dilute and have lesser hold on us. As we trust in the Lord more, we will start to see that the things we fear may not matter as much as before and peace becomes a more frequent visitor than our fears. This peace is not of the world, but through the works of God. May we all recalibrate our fear processors daily to allow God’s complete love and promises to flow in, driving out all fears. God bless.