Facing Fear with Faith: 4 Steps to Trusting God When Anxiety Strikes

Facing fear means God calls us to recognize His work, remember His faithfulness, refocus on His greatness, and rest in His promises.

Do you have fears? I certainly do. And I really don’t like this about myself. Afterall, I think I should be able to trust God. But it’s not so easy, is it?

We fear the results of a child’s actions.
We fear we won’t be able to do what’s expected of us.
We fear bad medical news.
We fear a relationship is falling apart.
We fear something bad will happen.
We fear for our country.

I imagine that each of us could fill pages and pages of our fears even those we don’t want to admit.

So, what do we do in times of intense fear?

David reminds us in Psalm 56:3

        “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God whose word I praise–in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”

In all honesty, I want to say to David, “This sounds good but it’s not so easy!” 

I have found four little things help me as I continue to struggle with fear and long to grow more in trusting Him.

4 Practical Steps to Grow Your Trust in God Amidst Fear

1. Recognize

We can’t churn up trust. God has to grow trust within us.

Paul reminds us, “For it is God who is at work within you both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13).” God is at work in my life and yours even if we can’t see it at this moment. He is working while we are waiting.

2. Remember

Think of times in the past when You saw His hand in a hard time. Make a list of them or share them with a friend. This will give us the faith to believe He will come through again. In the Old Testament we see Moses and others encouraging the children of Israel by telling them to remember… “Remember when…” This enabled them to take one next step of faith.

3. Refocus

This one helps me the most. It’s easy to let my fears grow and grow until I’ve lost perspective.  In reality, I’ve let my fear become bigger than my God. To restore perspective, I being to say out loud the character traits of the Trinity. I go down the alphabet naming a character trait for each letter. A=Father you are Always (you never leave!) B=Father, you Bless. C=Jesus you Cleanse. D= Father you Deliver and so forth. This simple exercise has a way of turning my eyes from my fears back onto my Lord who is bigger than any of my fears. 

4. Rest

Do you ever find yourself thinking, “no one understands how I feel, how hard this (whatever the “this” is), how alone I am…”

He alone does understand.  “Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.” (Psalm 147:5)

He knows us completely, even better than we know ourselves. (Psalm 139).

It’s all too easy to feed our fears by thoughts of “what if… or “if only.”  These 2 phrases can become dangerous and increase our fears. Read more about that here.

We must rest in the promises of scripture instead of feeding our fears.

In His Word

Here is a favorite scripture to read when you get up in the morning!

“But I will sing of your strength; in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.” Psalm 59:16

In Your Life

What are one or two of your current fears? Have a private ceremony giving them to the Lord on a platter or throwing them in a nearby stream! Then begin to recite out loud His character traits. Ask Him to remind you of his character traits that you need the most right now.

We Recommend

Susan’s books, Risky Faith and The One Devotional: One Word, One Verse, One Thought for One Hundred Days. You will find other resources and free downloads at her website at susanalexanderyates.com.

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