How To Get Rid of Fear

Fearless
Fearless (photo: Mariel Leister)
By Mariel LeisterJune 15th, 2017

Growing up in a tropical country, I have had my fair share of thunderstorms.

Here in the Philippines, we have what is called a rainy season; so, thunder and lightning are inevitable. A storm is not something that I can run away from.

Astraphobia is the term that doctors use for the fear of thunder and lightning. It's common in both animals and humans and I've seen the reality of both. Most of us have. I used to have this, my mom used to have this, and even my dog used to have this.

When I was younger and the thunderstorms would rage across the sky with loud peals of thunder and sharp flashes of lightning, what I would do was hide myself under a blanket and cover my ears with pillows. But that didn't stop me from being scared. All that it did was to minimize my vision and muffle the sounds just a little bit. That didn't stop me from screaming along with the thunder. It terrified me.

Sounds familiar?

That was how I was until I met Jesus, got saved, and started reading the Holy Bible. Eventually, as I pursued my Bible reading, I got to the part where Jesus calmed a storm in the middle of a lake.

Jesus was ministering to the people all day, healing and teaching everyone who came to him. When the evening came, he decided to go to the other side of the lake along with his disciples, riding on a boat. His disciples Peter, James and John were men of the waters, they were fishermen, so they were on familiar territory. But soon a fierce storm came up. High waves were breaking into the boat, and it began to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up, shouting, "Teacher, don't you care that we're going to drown (Mark 4:37-38)?" 

A fierce storm came up and the navigators of the sea were afraid while Jesus, a carpenter by trade, was sound asleep. When I read this, I thought, "How could Jesus sleep like that?" The possibility of them being swept away at sea by the storm was really high, but Jesus slept. "What's with Jesus?" I thought.

When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Silence! Be still!" Suddenly the wind stopped and there was a great calm. Then he asked them, "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith (Mark 4:39-40)?"

Thunder and lightning were not mentioned in these passages but given that it was described as a fierce storm, we can very well imagine that these two were there. Can you picture how horrifying that moment was?

But, Jesus...

Jesus was absolutely at rest. It's not that he didn't care, as the disciples said, but it was that Jesus had complete faith in God the Father that no harm would befall them. Jesus had a mission from above and he knew who was in control.

Now, how did this revelation get rid of my Astraphobia?

I came to this conclusion: God is in control of nature. He is in control of the thunder and the lightning, even rain and snow and heat. These are all his creations. I know from the Bible that God loves me, and even us, when we love someone, we make sure that they are safe. So I came to believe that the Lord will make sure that I am safe and that he will not let lightning strike me. If Jesus could sleep in the middle of a fierce storm, why couldn't I? And then finally, just by the simple fact of believing in the love that God has for me, my fear was wiped away. It could not get any simpler.

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love (1 John 4:18).

To get rid of fear is to accept the love of God. Astraphobia is one of the thousands of phobias out there, but it is not the only one that God's love can expel. I have shared my fear of thunderstorms because it was the one that made me realize this truth. But you know what? I used to have other fears too like crossing the road, going out on my own, the dark, people, et cetera. But, they are all done away with now, and all I did was believe in the love of God.

God's love is perfect. It is the universal medicine for every kind of fear there is. I guarantee, it works.

*All scriptures quoted are from the New Living Translation Bible.

 

 

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