Fear is running far more rampant right now than the COVID-19 virus.  Fear is doing far more damage to far more people than this current virus ever could do.

Most people recover from a virus, this one included.  But fear seems to linger, to take hold, to take over and move in.  Long after the virus is gone, the fear remains. Some people never recover and fear becomes a way of life.

We are being told by our media to self isolate and to practice social distancing. Supposedly, this will protect us from the dreaded COVID-19 virus. But it will not protect us from fear.  Unlike a virus, fear doesn’t require physical proximity to perpetuate its insidious spread.  And ironically, this very distancing and isolating of ourselves from others, which we are told to do, is what allows our fear to grow in us unchecked until it is out of control and has taken over our every thought and our everyday life.

Fear becomes the new normal, dictating and directing everything we do, every decision we make.  More contagious than any virus and more deadly,  fear spreads more quickly, takes hold more strongly  and moves in more permanently than any virus ever could.  You can self isolate from a virus, but you can’t self isolate from fear.  Isolation fuels fear – feeding it with lies, misinformation, deceptions, and distortions of reality and of the truth.

The antidote to fear is truth.  fear paralyses – fear enslaves  –  truth sets free.

Fear is more contagious than any virus precisely because you don’t need physical contact to contract it.  Fear knows no physical limitations, it has no natural boundaries to cross.  Unlike a virus, bound by physical laws of nature, fear travels unhindered across time and through space.

We could say that fear is an air born disease.  It is transmitted through the air, the air waves –  watching TV, listening to the radio, reading email, twitter, Facebook, newspaper, conversation etc., – we can feel that “fear is in the air” –   fear becomes inescapeable when we are bombarded  with fear messages everywhere we turn.

Fear has free access to all of us,  all that is needed is for us to open the door and let her in,  then continue to feed her

our media is all too eager to be fear’s food supplier

and they are willing and able to provide a plentiful supply of fuel to feed our fear.

it is up to each one of us to protect ourselves from our enemy – Fear.

We are not fighting a virus,  we are fighting fear.

there will always be something we are being told by others that we should be afraid of and therefore alter our actions accordingly.  I, for one, refuse to live in fear.

I know that I don’t have control over world events nor over the circumstances that surround me.  But I know the One who does.  I know the One who is sovereign over all things in heaven and on earth.  And He has said that I am more than a conqueror, I don’t need to live in fear.

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   (Romans 8:37-39)

“Be strong and courageous.  Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”   (Joshua 1:9)

“You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in You.  Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, the Lord, is the Rock eternal.”  (Isaiah 26:3-4)

When I am faced with fear, fear demanding entrance into my life, I want to remember these words from Romans 8:15, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ ”     and I want to remember that at all times I can –

”  . . .   know and rely on the love God has for us (me).  God is love.  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.    . . .    There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”    (1 John 4:16, 18)

Franklin D. Roosevelt was correct when he stated, “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.”

it is time for our retreat to end and for fear to find a new home – she is not welcome here!

sincerely,      Grace Day