No real power

 Fear can be a trap, but if you trust in the Lord, you will be safe. (Proverbs 29:25)

If you have ever been "trapped" by fear, you know just how debilitating it can become. It almost imprisons you. You can barely take a step forward because it paralyzes you. It sends you down roads you never wanted to travel. As one fearful choice leads to another, you are trapped in a downward spiral. As long as that remains your focus, your path will always be DOWNWARD.

Notice that fear CAN be a trap, but it doesn't have to be one! What fear does is redirect our focus off of God and his goodness by placing all our focus on the issue or the perception we begin to entertain in our minds. Most of what we fear is made up of a conglomerate of emotions to either a perceived or real threat. Fear saps our energies and sends our emotions into a real tizzy.

Trusting in God requires a redirection of our focus. Downward is never God's location. He always moves us upward. Wherever our focus remains becomes the direction we will be heading. We can remain inward focused and become a little too selfish and self-preserving, or we can look outward and upward, shedding those very self-focused moments as we do. 

God's directive is to seek him in those moments of fear. His plan is to even out our out of control emotions and to help us to perceive the circumstances in a new light. If you hadn't noticed, fear kind of steals our light. God's plan is to give us back that light so we have a fuller illumination of the issue at hand. When he gives light, we will be able to see what we fear has no real power over us. Just saying!