Escaping the House of Fear

This post was written by TeenPact Student Body Representative Seth Martin of Virginia.

It was election night at National Convention. I anxiously awaited for the results to roll in, full of fear instead of peace. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I had hung a lot on who would win. More than that, I was afraid that I would lose—that for a fifth year in a row I would come up short—that I would let myself down. And that is exactly where the Devil wanted me!

When we give into fear, without even realizing it, we are isolating ourselves from God! Fear comes in many forms. We have a fear of missing out on something. We fear what others think of us and are even afraid of saying something stupid or messing up. Fear takes hold of us, but not by lumbering over us like a giant. Sometimes fear comes in like toxic gas; you can’t always see it. We bring ourselves into this House of fear that the Devil builds for us. We bring ourselves, our family, our friends into this House, and isolate ourselves from God.

We think the House will protect us, but we are dead wrong!

That House is created by the Devil to lull us into a false sense of security. It pulls us away from God without us even noticing. Why do we allow the devil to lure us away from the One who loves us unconditionally? 1 John 4:18 tells us, “There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear.” God’s love is perfect, it completely casts out all fear when we trust Him. We need to escape from this House of Fear that the Devil has us trapped in. We need to escape it and run to the overwhelming, never ending, perfect love of God, the perfect love of the One who loves us at our best and at our worst!

I need to be reminded of this truth, so sometimes I will write that verse reference on my wrist. That way it is always visible. I also have a bracelet with Joshua 1:9 written on it to remind me to not fear. What are you going to do to fight fear and trust this truth? Maybe it’s something like this or maybe it’s writing Scripture on the mirror in your bathroom, posting sticky-notes around your House, or just setting a reminder of it on your phone. Fear can be a really hard thing to overcome. I find myself falling prey to it almost daily, but that does not stop God from loving us or being there for us. He is always there, with arms wide open, waiting for us to run from the House to His love!

Representative Seth Martin