Exposing Fear
My journey to Freedom from Fear
A few years ago I found myself in a season where I felt absolutely paralysed by fear. I felt like there was no way forward. I was pregnant with my daughter Ariella and there were so many unknowns and unanswered questions about our future and my finding my place here in Switzerland. Slowly the voice of fear grew louder and louder in my heart and mind. I had lost perspective and was afraid for the future and felt like I was on the verge of losing all hope. And felt this fear begin to seep into other areas of my life.
Without realising it I had become a slave to fear. During that season God brought up part of a Bible verse into my heart “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free”. If it was for freedom that Christ set us free then why did I not feel free. Why did I feel like I couldn’t break free from this fear that overwhelmed by heart. Eventually I decided to look up the full verse. In Galatians 5:1 it states:
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
After reading the full verse I realised that I had allowed myself to become a slave of fear. Desperate I cried out to God, asking him where he was in my fears. Why couldn’t I see him. Why was he not delivering us from this situation. Why wasn’t he giving me the answers that I felt I so desperately needed. In that moment I felt the Holy Spirit whisper a question into my heart “Whose voice are you listening to? Are you listening to the voice of fear or are you listening to my voice”. In that moment I had realised that I had aloud fear to grow so loud in my heart and mind that it had drowned out the voice of God. And rather than being obedient to the voice of God I was starting to allow fear to control my perspective and inform the way I lived and reacted to everything in my life.
This realisation lead by the Holy Spirit moved me to repent and ask God to forgive me allowing fear to become my master and take first place in my heart in place of him. To forgive me for obeying the lies fear placed in my heart rather than Him.
If I had become a slave to fear was it possible that I had allowed fear to become an idol in my life? Can fear be an idol? this is something I pondered at the time and a question I still think about at times. I haven’t drawn a concrete answer but what I do know is that I had allowed fear to sit on the throne in my heart in place of God and had become obedient to its voice. And allowed fear to paralyse me and control the way I lived.
This moment was the beginning of a journey that God would take me on. He kindly and gentle meet me where I was and took me through a process of revealing the lies I believed that kept me captive in fear. I could then take these lies and hold them under the word of God and allow His light to shine of them. One my one he helped me to replace the lies I had believed with his truth.
End notes
I will be continuing this with this series on fear next week and will be sharing more about overcoming fear in the area of calling and sharing some free resources to help you boldly take your place in the Kingdom of God.
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