Tools for overcoming worry and fear

I taught in my Sunday School class this past weekend. It was a very interesting experience. I have a lot of new found respect for the people who do this every weekend. It is much harder than it looks!

Here is the text of my message:

Today, we will be talking about the worries and fears in our lives and what we can do about them.

First, what do we worry about or what do we fear?

You may fear failure, or poor health, or upsetting your spouse. You may worry about not being in control or having enough money. You may worry about your loved ones, especially your children.

The question is what do you do with that fear or worry? Do you let it drive you? Do you let the fear make decisions for you? Do you do everything in your power to keep that fear from happening? Does fear dictate how you live?

Fear and worry is insidious and a favorite tool of satan. Fear hinders relationships and holds us back from living the life that God desires. Living with fear is like walking around with a ball and chain attached to your leg (and no, I am not talking about your spouse.) The weight of that ball and chain of fear depends on who you are. Some of us are lugging around the 10 pound ball while others are so bogged down that they can’t even move.

I want to tell you about a time when I was bogged down with fear. It was probably a 50 pound weight ball and chain; pretty heavy. It was during law school. In law school, professors like to use a particular teaching method. It was cold calling. This is where you have to really study the case or homework that has been assigned for that day and when you get to class the professor calls on random students to discuss the case. So instead of the professor lecturing about the case, like they do in college, all of your learning and notes come from what other students say. And the professor guides the discussion by throwing out questions. Some professors are nice about it but some professors are not.

My constitutional professor was NOT. Professor Maclin was notorious for making students cry if they didn’t have the right answer. So in front of 75 of your peers, he could reduce you to a pile of rubble if you said the wrong thing. Everyone was terrified of him; well most everyone. So everyday, I wanted in anxious anticipation for my name to be called. Then, one day, I hear him call on me: WHAT HAPPENED IN BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION? And I almost passed out. No not really. I can’t even remember what happened after that. I must have blocked out. But I am pretty sure I did not cry. All I remember is for a semester, day in and day out. I carried this 50 pound weight of fear with me. I feared failure, I feared what my classmates and professors would think of me. It was a difficult existence.

DISCUSSION question for your group: What do you fear? What do you worry about?

So what is the point to this story. It is an illustration of how I did not handle fear very well at that time. I didn’t implement the following steps that we’ll be discussing soon.

But before we get to those steps, I just want to mention that there is a healthy fear and the type of fear that you should have in your life. That is the fear of the Lord; which is a whole other message. But I will leave you with Proverbs 9:10, which says, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

How do we deal with that fear that is unhealthy? People will often say, “You need to turn that over to God.” And that’s true! And today we are going to put feet to that saying and find a practical way of turning our worries and fears over to God.

What I have noticed in my own life is that a fear or worry sneaks into my mind and begins to take root, meaning whatever the fear is, I start to dwell on it. I begin to give it a lot of mental attention and feed it; and then that fear begins to grow. It’s a lot like a weed. And I keep feeding it and dwelling on it because I WANT TO FIX THE PROBLEM. Ah ha. We feed the fear because we want to be in control of our lives. We want to make sure we don’t fail or that our children are always protected.

So there are two things we need to do here; this is the application.

1. We immediately need to submit that fear to God in prayer.

2. We need to replace that fear “weed” with Scripture.

So first all of, we have to relinquish control to God. Ultimately, we need to accept that we have very little control over our lives and what happens. God is in control of your marriage. God is in control of your health. God is in control of your job. God is watching over your children.

Now believing this is much harder than me standing up and saying it.

I have to submit to God things I want to control on a daily basis, if not hourly. I can pray in the morning about a situation and by 10am be worried about that same problem again. Then, I stress and then I try to harder to fix the situation. But what I should do is at 10:01 am, I need to resubmit my thoughts and fears to God.

So POINT 1: submit that fear to God in prayer immediately! As soon as it pops into your mind! Do not dwell on it or try to fix it – submit it in prayer!

POINT 2: we need to replace that fear with the Word of God. Scripture is a powerful weapon against fear. If we are going with the weed analogy that fear is a weed planted in your mind, then Scripture is Round-up. Round-up kills weeds. (Bring bottle of Round-up and hold up at this time.) So I suggest finding verses that apply to your situation and praying those verses either silently or out loud.

But guess what? This jug of Round-up says “More than one application may be necessary” so what do I do? I spray more Round-up on the weed to kill it. Practically, this may mean memorizing that Bible verse and meditating on the verse.

But what this does is twofold. First, by using Scripture you are shifting the focus from fear to God. The Bible keeps the fear from growing. You don’t want to dwell on the fear and you want to cut it off at its initial sprout in your mind. Secondly, you are unleashing a supernatural force that is the Word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16: says that All Scripture is God-breathed. There is power in God’s Word.

I am not advocating a “name it and claim it” theology. Just because you found a verse that applies to your situation, it does not mean that for the rest of your life, you will be happy and fine. Bad things happen. But if you are daily submitting control to God and relying on His Word to bring you peace, you will be well equipped to handle the challenges that may lie ahead.

Today in our horseshoes, in this handout is a list of fears and I want us to find verses that apply to these fears. Each horseshoe will get a couple of these fears and then you will share with the class what you have found. Then, this list can serve as a resource when you need to kill a weed.

Before we move into prayer request time in our horseshoes, in the middle of the cross at the bottom of the page, I would like for you to think for a few minutes about the thing that you fear or worry about the most. Then, write it down in the middle of the cross. This is a symbolic act of you turning that fear or worry over to God and then when you go home, I want you to really pray about this fear and find a Scripture that speaks to you and write it down on the line above the cross.

So my two take away points is:
First, you submit the fear to God in prayer immediately, then you use Scripture to shift your focus from the fear to God and you kill that weed called fear.

Let’s end in prayer: Lord, God, give us the strength this week to face our fears. I pray that we would turn them over to you before they can become a stronghold in our lives. I pray that you would help each of us to find verses that would see us through our fear or worry. Lord, thank you that Your Word is alive and active and I pray that this week we would use it conquer the fears and worries in our lives. You are good and wise and we love you. Amen.