Is Fear Holding You Captive

by Clarence Dalrymple

Guest Post

IS FEAR HOLDING YOU CAPTIVE

Problems in adult life very often have their beginning in one’s childhood, which was true in my case.

Basically, I was a happy, normal child but extremely sensitive and insecure. Fear would grip me when I was called on to give answers, give book reports in front of the class, or write something on the chalkboard in front of the class.

I was a prisoner of my fears, which were crippling my personality and imprisoning me—isolating me from enjoying life as a normal child.

In my mind, I would always be inferior to my peers and just barely be able to get by in life.

In August 1962, my whole life was transformed and changed. I came face to face with the reality of Jesus Christ and His gift of the Holy Spirit, who transformed this shy kid into a bold adult, equipping me to fulfill the will of God in my life.

Fear is the adversary of the soul.

It holds men and women imprisoned in their minds. Fear does not allow the person to walk with dignity and hope. They are entrapped by the webs of lies that have convinced them there is no exit from the circumstances confronting them.

Fear is the bully that intimidates a person into believing there is no hope.

A person must isolate the fear.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt made this famous quote in his inaugural address in 1933. “So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

See yourself as God sees you. I saw a photo of a kitten looking into a mirror. The image in the mirror was not a small baby kitten but was an image of a roaring lion.

To be free from fear, a person must see the photograph that God has processed.

” Fear not; for I am with you, be not dismayed for I am your God; I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, and I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.” Isaiah 41:10

Today is the first day of the rest of your life.

Let’s begin by seeing yourself as God sees you (righteous, holy, overcomer, and more than a conqueror).