How To Overcome Fear (2)

“His compassions fail not. They are new every morning.”           La 3:22-23

Cardinal J. H. Newman said, “Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but that it shall never have a beginning.” If you let fear take over your life, you’ll never fully live. The truth is that many of our fears are totally unfounded. Haven’t you found that to be so? Studies show that 95 percent of what we fear is baseless, and the rest are things we must learn to live with. Perhaps the best approach is to adopt the attitude of the poet Gertrude Stein, who said, “Considering how dangerous everythingis, nothingis really frightening.” Humanly speaking, there are no guarantees in life. We look to many things to protect us: insurance policies, burglar alarms, travelers’ checks, aspirin, umbrellas, GPS systems, and airbags. But the truth is that life is dangerous, damaging to your health, and will eventually kill you. So you might as well live to the fullest. Shakespeare said, “He is not worthy of the honeycomb who shuns the hive because the bees have stings.” Don’t let fear keep you from taking small steps in your development. You never know where they may lead. There are two things that are ever-present with us in life: fear and faith. And every day you live, you choose one or the other. Jeremiah chose faith. He wrote: “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion…therefore I hope in Him! The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him” (vv. 22-25 NKJV).

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