CURING
FEAR

Topics: Anxiety; Courage; Danger; Deliverance; Doubt; Fear; Growth; Healing; Overcoming; Sanctification; Self-discipline; Spiritual Formation; Testing; Trials; Worry

References: Romans 5:3–5; Philippians 4:6–7; 2 Timothy 1:7; Hebrews 2:14–15; James 1:2–4; 1 Peter 1:6–7; 1 John 4:18

I recently went to the doctor for allergy tests to determine what was triggering my asthma. The nurse practitioner pricked my forearm in eighteen places with different allergens and then said, “Don’t scratch.” I had to resist the urge to scratch the itch for fifteen of the longest minutes of my life!

Testing for allergies isn’t a pointless exercise in cruel and unusual punishment, even though it might seem like it. It is a form of reverse engineering. My doctor wasn’t satisfied with treating my allergy symptoms; she wanted to discover the root causes of my reactions. And the solution isn’t just avoiding those allergens I reacted to. The cure is actually exposing myself to those allergens in small doses.

Here is my point: The cure for fear of failure is not success; it’s failure. The cure for fear of rejection is not acceptance; it’s rejection. You have to be exposed to small quantities of whatever you’re afraid of. That’s how you build up immunity to fear.

—Mark Batterson, In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day (Multnomah, 2006)