Let’s face it. We have all had it. Perhaps it’s a conversation that needs to happen with a friend… Maybe it’s an audition, try-out, or job interview… it could be more serious, like a dreaded Doctor’s appointment or a public speaking engagement. Whatever the situation FEAR grabs you by the back of your neck. We know deep down that fear is our enemy. Left unchecked, it always produces negative results. So HOW DO WE CONTROL IT? Is there even a way to do so? I believe that you can convert fear into faith and always achieve a positive result. HOW? See these seven steps:

1. Acknowledge your fear. Call it what it is. Don’t pass it off as the jitters or nervous energy. Now if you really did have too much coffee, that’s a different story! But seriously, if fear is in your mind, it will help to recognize it first.

2. Understand that fear is not from God. Does God want you to have fear? There IS ‘fear of the Lord’ but that is actually another thing entirely and it may be the subject of a future post, but the words ‘fear not’ appear over 60 times in the Bible. 2 Timothy 1:7 says ‘God does not give a spirit of fear.’ Philippians 4:6 says ‘Be anxious for nothing.’ It’s difficult to be anxious for nothing, isn’t it. We can get there however… continue through these steps.

3. Realize that we must develop Faith. Hebrews 11:6 teaches that ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God. We often wonder why we are in this particular situation, or have that going on in our lives. Sometimes we are reaping the seeds we have planted, but more often we are being given an opportunity to develop our Faith muscle. Without a need to lean on God, most of us won’t. Faith only grows, when we need it and if our desire is to please God, we must understand that we can not do so without it.

4. The product of fear is worry. When you find yourself worrying, you must know that it is generated by fear. Oh, we can label it as concern… or a number of other words, but worry is always a product of fear. Think of how many times you speak, “I’m worried about _____” or “I’m just concerned that _______”. Those ‘worry statements’ confirm and strengthen your fear. Eliminating those comments will help tremendously.

Our speech is powerful to confirm what is in our mind and create reality from imagination. -Ken Halford

5. The opposite of worry is prayer. When you desire to convert your fear into faith, the most powerful thing you can do, after you have done the above, is convert your worry to prayer. If the product of fear is worry, rest assured that the product of faith is prayer. When you find that fear has given birth to worry, IMMEDIATELY begin to pray. Honestly, most of the time I don’t feel like praying at this point. What I feel like doing is figuring out what I can do about the situation. That is when I remind myself that there is nothing more, and certainly nothing better, that I can do about the situation until at least, I have prayed about it first.

You can do more than pray, after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. -John Bunyan

6. Exercise Faith. To exercise faith, you must first know what faith IS. So, to define faith, you can go to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary or as I choose for definitions: THE BIBLE. According to Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We can hope for something that we can not see and worry that it will not happen. Or we can exercise faith. When we hope for something and have faith that it will occur, there are some changes. First our speech changes. We have to constantly speak in faith. Again, our speech is powerful to confirm what is in our mind (or what we actually BELIEVE), and create our reality. This is Faith. Secondly, our actions change. If we are expecting Faith to change our reality, we act differently. Think about it. If you KNOW it is going to rain, you might carry an umbrella or not wear your best shoes. If you HOPE it is going to rain, you do whatever you would do otherwise. Faith will absolutely transform your actions but it almost always transforms your speech first.

7. Be thankful If you are looking for positive results, converting your faith to fear using the above steps will get you there. Beginning to be thankful is part of the positivity. Will everything work out exactly the way you want, 100% of the time? Hopefully NOT! I can sit here all day and tell you how I prayed for things that didn’t happen and now I am so grateful. My Father knows my future and doesn’t count my past against me. How wonderful is that?? God uses our faith to grow us. He promises us that we can have the faith of Christ. He is the One who will produce the positive result and give us more and more reason to trust Him. We must be willing to trust enough to have the smallest seed of faith and say NO to fear and trust the result up to Him.

I hope you will post a comment on how God has built faith in your life. Please share this post too! I trust that it will encourage you and/or someone you love. My favorite part of all of this is the interaction with you, so please comment and participate in the conversation. I am praying for all who read this, that God will giganticize (Yep, I just made that word up) your FAITH and minisculize (That one too) your FEAR!