Living Without Fear: Four Keys for When Fear Knocks at Your Door

Introduction

This message from Gaetana Le Veo, at Église SOS Lyon, isn't a sermon like the others. It's a piece of testimony. She builds on Revelation 12:11: the disciples overcame the accuser through two things, the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. So she tells what God has done for her, because she believes that on that day, some hearts needed to hear it.

Have you ever prayed for years about something specific? A long, painful, tedious road. And then one day, years later, without even really thinking about it, you look back and say, "I finally got my victory." Gaetana battled for years with something that might be familiar to you too: fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the past, fear of tomorrow, fear of rejection, fear of new things, fear of speaking in public. We all face it in one way or another.

One phrase carried her all along her journey: "I want you to live without fear." But to live without fear, you have to confront it. Here's her story, and the few keys she drew from it.

Outline of the Message

1. A Testimony: From Fearful Child to Freed Woman

• Gaetana grew up fearful and sensitive, in a Christian family. She knew Jesus, went to Sunday school, knew who he was. But her real encounter with him happened at age 11, during a hard season: she went through bullying at school, minimized it ("it's not that bad, it happens to others") and never spoke about it.
• That silence produced immense stress, that lump in the throat that keeps you from speaking and eating. For several months, she couldn't eat normally. It wasn't anorexia or an issue with her body: it was anguish.
• For nearly a year, she prayed every day in her childhood bedroom: "Jesus, I believe you exist. I believe the Sunday school stories are true. I believe you heal. And if you heal me before January 1, 2004, I will give you my life and follow you." Giving God an ultimatum may not be the best approach, but she was 11. And Jesus lets himself be found: the Word says that when a wretched person cries out, the LORD hears and saves them out of all their troubles.
• On January 1, 2004, she was able to eat her first normal meal. "My Jesus is alive, my Jesus heals, my Jesus is good, my Jesus answers the simplest prayers."
• A woman of her word, she kept her commitment: youth group, personal times with God, Jesus Culture on full blast, a worship collective, real friends in the church, serving from a young age. At 16, she confessed Jesus as Savior and Lord. That was more than 16 years ago now.
• Still, following Jesus didn't make all her fears disappear. But something was different: as she opened the Word, she kept discovering four little words that come back again and again, "Do not be afraid." According to the count she cites, 365 times, once for every day of the year.
• One day at a time, leaning on Jesus, she faced her fears: making new friends, novelty, starting a career, getting married, taking her driving test. And fear took up less and less space.
• Then came 2016: at 23, master's degree finished, top of her class after five very intense years, she thought a wonderful future was opening up. Except that in August, her job search went nowhere. She realized that the best grades don't open the job market, and that she had placed her value there. She then discovered something she didn't know: panic attacks. The kind that wake you up at night, that make your heart race, that make you wonder if you're going to faint in front of 400 people. Where is my worth? Who am I? What am I going to do with my life?
• 2016 was one of the hardest seasons of her life, but also the one with the most intimate face-to-face moments with Jesus. From there began a long heart-to-heart journey, which produced a few gems.

2. Fear Is Legitimate: What Matters Is What You Do With It

• At first, "do not be afraid" seemed easy to say: there's no shortage of reasons to be afraid. Then she looked at it from another angle. Fear is legitimate. It's one of the emotions we're called to feel as human beings. This isn't toxic positivity of the kind "you're not allowed to be afraid."
• What matters isn't your fear, it's what you do with it. Is it a springboard for your faith, or do you let it swallow you? Is it a tornado raging inside you, or a strong wind that gives your boat just enough push to unfurl its sails?
• When God says "do not be afraid," he isn't saying "you have no right to feel that." Jesus himself felt fear and even anguish. But he tells you: don't let yourself be paralyzed and kept from living what I have for you because of fear.
• Gaetana quotes Nelson Mandela: courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to conquer it. We will all face fears, but God calls us to triumph over fear.

3. First Key: Know That You Are Loved, and Live Like Someone Who Knows It

• This is the most important key, a subject that's truly close to Gaetana's heart. You can spot people who know they're loved: they walk into a room, they take their place, they dare, they speak freely, they don't freeze under the gaze of others.
• Jesus knew he was deeply loved by the Father. His whole identity was based on that; his whole source was rooted in the Father's love. He had nothing to prove, he already had everything. God's love was fully sufficient.
• 1 John 4:18: "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love." Fear often lives in a lack of love, and maybe you've lacked some.
• Jesus has been Gaetana's best friend for 20 years: her comforter, her support, her refuge, the source she needed in the driest seasons. It wasn't her own effort or courage that brought fear down in her, it was his love. And he can do that for you.
• John 3:16: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. He didn't love the world a little, but abundantly, with a love that overwhelms, like a torrent that floods over you. It's that love that can bring fear down in you.
• Your worth isn't found in your social success, your diplomas, or even in your gifts or how well you practice spiritual disciplines. Your worth is fully found at the cross. Someone died for you, because it was unthinkable for God that you spend eternity without him. When you feel loved by him, you're no longer afraid of what others think, of the unknown, of rejection.
• The apostle John, in his own gospel, calls himself "the disciple whom Jesus loved." That's bold. Did Jesus love him more than the others? No. Any disciple could have called himself that. The difference with John is his capacity to receive and take hold of that love. Today, you are the disciple Jesus loves. That's your identity.
• Knowing you're loved is one thing; living like someone who knows it is another. If that's the case, you have nothing left to prove, and that's rest for your soul. Sometimes your soul acts up, caught in emotion. So speak to your soul and remind it of the truth it forgets: Psalm 116:7 ("Return to your rest, my soul, for the LORD has dealt bountifully with you"), Psalm 42:6 ("Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall still praise him for the help of his presence"), Psalm 103:1 ("Bless the LORD, my soul! All that is within me, bless his holy name!"). Remind it who your God is, and be careful what seeps into your soul.

4. Second Key: Tend the Garden of Your Thoughts

• Philippians 4:8-9: whatever is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good report, virtuous and praiseworthy, let your mind dwell on these things... and the God of peace will be with you.
• When you start letting fear swallow you up, take a look at what your thoughts look like. Is everything that crosses your mind true, right, praiseworthy? You have to learn to discern truth from lies, the good plants from the weeds.
• A simple image: at 4 or 5 years old, in her uncle's garden, Gaetana sees mint, walks over, and takes a deep breath of it. Her nose starts itching, swelling, doubling in size. It wasn't mint, it was stinging nettle. There's mint in your garden, but there are also nettles. You have to learn to tell the two apart.
• Be someone who spends so much time in the Word, which is truth, that when a lie knocks at the door of your thoughts, you're able to tell it: "No, you're not coming in. Here, I grow what is pure, right, true, praiseworthy." Be intentional, uproot the thoughts that get in your way, choose your reasoning, feed your thoughts with what is certain.
• The result is precise: it isn't just any description that's used, it's the God of peace who will be with you, depending on how you choose your thoughts.
• Two ways fear seeps into your thoughts: wanting to control what you can't control (for example what others think of us), and projecting a past failure or pain onto the future. Gaetana experienced it: ten years ago, she panicked while speaking in public. "What if it happens to me again?" The ruminating starts, you feed on something that doesn't exist, it's foggy, and yet it impacts your whole being. The best way to deal with it is to confront it.

5. Third Key: Face Your Fears, Faith Is a Movement

• It's not by avoiding your fears that you'll overcome them. There's no way around it. In the Word, "do not be afraid" is often a phrase God gives to strengthen someone before sending them to do his will. If Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Paul needed to hear it, how much more do we.
• Take the example of Joshua. He takes over from Moses: the man who led Israel out of Egypt, received the tablets of the law, split the sea in two, saw God face to face. Joshua saw all of that, but also the grind of leading a rebellious people through the desert for 40 years. No wonder God tells him in Joshua 1:9: "Haven't I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don't be afraid. Don't be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." In his place, Gaetana would have been anxious and would have needed that encouragement.
• But what did Joshua do with that fear? A much lesser known verse, Joshua 10:25, ten chapters later: this time it's Joshua speaking to the people: "Don't be afraid, and don't be dismayed. Be strong and courageous, for the LORD will do this to all your enemies against whom you fight." He repeats word for word the encouragement he received personally from God, and with that encouragement, he can in turn encourage a nation.
• What happened between Joshua 1 and Joshua 10? The Israelites cross the Jordan on dry ground, just like the Red Sea in Moses's time. Joshua didn't have a face-to-face with God like Moses, but he meets the commander of the LORD's army, a sign that God is leading the battle with him. He wins victory over five nations. And God stops the sun to lengthen a day of battle, at Joshua's request: the only man in the Bible to experience that. The trembling Joshua of Joshua 1 faced his fears one by one with God, triumphed, and can now encourage an entire nation. That's our God.
• The antidote to fear is faith: the assurance of things hoped for, the proof of things not seen. And faith isn't a concept, it's a movement. If you want to experience faith and step out of fear, you're going to have to get moving.
• Joshua and Gideon did it, they took the first step. Joshua led a people into the promised land, but his first step was preparing the people. Gideon led a war, but his first step was tearing down the sacred pole in his father's house. There are always first steps: we won't defeat nations if we haven't already defeated the little cat bothering us at our own door. They were afraid, but they chose not to let that fear grow; they fed their faith, one step at a time.
• In recent years, Gaetana set herself a rule: do something that scares her every day. Faith is like a muscle, it has to be trained. You have to keep going back, like at the gym. She made a commitment to herself and to God: expose herself to it, no shortcuts. "I confront the fear and I triumph."
• The challenge: what is God asking of you that scares you? That thing where you say "no, I'm not doing it, I'm too afraid"? This isn't about going on a roller coaster or holding a boa constrictor just to stop being afraid of snakes. But if you sense God is putting something on your heart and fear is keeping you from going, then rise up with faith. Take your stand: "I'm going, because I'm not alone, because I have the LORD of hosts by my side, because he is with me and he wants me to triumph."
• God wants to raise up brave and strong men and women. Don't stay crouched in the shadow of your fear: there is so much more for you. When God brings you face to face with your fears, it's not because he doesn't love you, it's because he loves you too much to let fear rule over you and keep you from stepping into his destiny for you.
• Right after finally landing a permanent job after six months, at a wonderful company, the Holy Spirit put it on the hearts of Gaetana and her husband David to give it all up to go train and be with him. "I prayed, I cried, I was anxious, and now that I've finally got what I prayed for, the Lord asks me to let it all go." They did it. And in that moment, there was no more fear or dread: she knew who her God was and that he was walking ahead of her.
• One more thought: surround yourself with courageous people, especially if you're fearful. People who face their fears and speak with faith. Every time she was afraid, Gaetana knocked on their door, and they always had the words to lift her up: "Don't stop there, keep moving." The person closest to her is her husband: he lives without fear, "he's a viking." She needed someone to remind her every day that she can't live ruled by her fears or her emotions, but must move forward in faith toward what God asks of her.

6. Fourth Key: Look to Jesus

• Simple but so important. Very often, when fear knocks at your door, it's because you're no longer looking to Jesus: you're looking at yourself, at your abilities, at your inabilities, but not at the God of peace, the all-powerful God who can do anything for you. Don't center yourself, center on Christ, your hope, your rock, your victory.
• If you want to follow God, he will inevitably ask impossible things of you. Why? Because if you can do them without him, you get the glory for it. If you can't do them without him, all the glory goes to him. Many times, Gaetana has told God: "This challenge, I'm not taking it on, leave me in my comfortable little routine." But God always came gently: if you can't do this without me, that's exactly why you should do it, because the glory will come back to me.
• 2 Corinthians 12:9: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Every day, every hour, I need you. In my weakness, you use me; in my inabilities, you give me every resource I need; you are my peace and my refuge even in adversity.
• Step out of your own head, out of the ruminating loops. Philippians 4:6-7: "In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." How many of us are held captive by our own reasoning? We look for the solution, the answer, the well-crafted argument. You have to learn to leave your chaos at the cross: "Jesus, I'm leaving it all there. I don't have a solution, but I believe that out of this chaos, out of these ashes, you will bring life back to life."
• Gaetana's last panic attack was more than three years ago. "My God is alive, my God heals, my God saves, my God is the supernatural peace the Word speaks of." If someone had told her that one day she'd take the microphone in front of so many people to talk about it, she never would have believed it. This is a God who does the impossible and uses the weakest people so that his glory can shine. Don't be afraid of your weaknesses, let him use them. Your desperation will serve his glory.

Key Takeaways

• Fear is a legitimate emotion, Jesus himself felt it. It isn't your fear that matters, it's what you do with it: a springboard for your faith or a tornado that swallows you up.
• Knowing you are loved is the most important key: perfect love casts out fear. Your worth is at the cross, not in your success, your diplomas, or your gifts. You are the disciple Jesus loves.
• Tend the garden of your thoughts: tell the mint from the nettles, refuse to let the lie in, and the God of peace will be with you.
• The antidote to fear is faith, and faith is a movement. There's no shortcut: face your fears one step at a time, like Joshua between Joshua 1 and Joshua 10.
• Look to Jesus, not to your abilities or your inabilities. If God asks the impossible of you, it's so the glory comes back to him: his grace is sufficient for you.

Personal Application

1. Do you know that you are loved? And above all, do you live like someone who knows it, with nothing left to prove?
2. When fear swallows you up, what do your thoughts look like? Is everything crossing your mind true, right, pure, praiseworthy? What roots do you need to pull up today?
3. Does your fear come from a need to control what you can't control, or from a past failure you're projecting onto the future?
4. What is God asking of you that scares you? What first step, even a small one, can you take this week to get moving?
5. Who are the courageous, faith-filled people around you, whose door you can knock on when you're afraid?
6. What chaos do you need to leave at the cross today, accepting that you don't have the solution?

Gaetana closed with a prayer written in the storm, which you can make your own, hand on your heart: I want to walk on the water with you without being afraid of sinking; to be in the boat in the middle of the storm without being afraid of dying; to be in the deepest desert without being afraid of being alone; to be in Gethsemane with you without being afraid of the suffering that awaits me; to stand before the crowds, declaring who you are, without being afraid of being rejected; to be with you every morning without being afraid of whatever may happen. I want to be with you and never be afraid again, for you are with me. Amen.

Verses Cited

• Revelation 12:11: overcoming the accuser through the blood of the Lamb and the word of testimony
• Psalm 34:6: this poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles
• 1 John 4:18: perfect love casts out fear
• John 3:16: God so loved the world that he gave his only Son
• Psalm 116:7: return to your rest, my soul
• Psalm 42:5: why are you in despair, my soul? Hope in God
• Psalm 103:1: bless the LORD, my soul
• Philippians 4:6-9: in nothing be anxious; let your mind dwell on what is true; the God of peace will be with you
• Joshua 1:9: be strong and courageous, the LORD your God is with you
• Joshua 10:25: Joshua in turn encourages the people
• Joshua 3:14-17; 5:13-15; 10:12-14: crossing the Jordan, the commander of the LORD's army, the sun standing still
• Judges 6:25-27: Gideon's first step, tearing down the idol in his father's house
• Hebrews 11:1: faith, the assurance of things hoped for
• 2 Corinthians 12:9: my grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the Bible forbid feeling afraid?

No. When God says "do not be afraid," he isn't saying you have no right to feel that emotion. Fear is legitimate: it's part of being human, and Jesus himself felt fear and anguish. What matters is what you do with your fear: a springboard for your faith, or a tornado that swallows you up.

How many times does the Bible say "do not be afraid"?

According to the count cited in this message, "do not be afraid" appears 365 times in the Word: once for every day of the year. It's often a phrase God gives to strengthen someone before sending them to accomplish his will: Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Paul all needed to hear it.

What are the four keys to living without fear in this message?

First, know that you are loved and live like someone who knows it, because perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Second, tend the garden of your thoughts (Philippians 4:8-9). Third, face your fears, because faith is a movement and is trained like a muscle. Fourth, look to Jesus rather than to your abilities or inabilities (2 Corinthians 12:9).