Fear is a Liar

My husband Matt and I went to a Zach Williams concert and actually met Zach. Fear is a Liar is his song. When I met him, I called him Zach and said, "Wow it really feels like we’re friends." To which he replied, "That’s what everyone calls me." Friendship status pending. Great concert, great music, great date, great God we worshipped!

Fear really is a liar. Most of our fears are rooted in the very irrational, non-thinking part of our brain. Which is why fear lies to us. It’s not rooted in truth, solutions, rationale, or higher thinking. So why do we keep listening to it?

We often times let it have a strong voice over us when really it deserves no such place. If you’ve had trauma and past experiences that validate your fear, I get its hold on you. It's hard not to fear wasps when you've felt their sting or hurricanes when you've personally realized it's great power or brakes screeching when you've felt the intensity of a wreck. Seriously, the brain is wired to remember life threatening things and trigger fear and fear responses when we experiences aspects of the trauma. If this is persistent in your life, I'll encourage you to seek help from a professional mental health provider. They are trained to help break those ties in your brain so it's not as easily triggered. 

A simple tool you can use that helps put fear in its place is a reality check. Something I often teach people I counsel is that fear has this trick it likes to play on our brain where it says, if you worry about it, it will protect you from it. Well as Zach sings so well, fear is a liar! I sometimes wish my worry could produce the protection it claims, but it has no such power! Which is precisely why we shouldn't give fear such a voice over our lives. 

In reality, there are things we can do that can keep us safe, there are things we can do that are worth the risk, there are things we can redirect our mind to instead of fear that produces much more wanted results. 

Bring awareness to your fears. Fear being the liar it is, also likes to claim credit. It says, "See, you were scared of that and it happened. I was right!" It's kind of like my child who sings "turn green, turn green, turn green" at the stop light and when it finally turns green, he claims it was him that made it do that (he gets his wit from me obviously). In reality, we will experience fearful things in this life. We need common sense and to make wise choices, but fear is a terrible leader! 

So be reminded that fear is a liar. Ground yourself in truth and don't listen to the lies that fear wants to tell you. Fear is a liar.