I never knew I’d have to fight so hard in order to put my faith into action. My faith—my belief in God is strong. But when Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 6:12 to fight the good fight of faith, he uses action words like “flee  “pursue” “fight” “take hold.”

1 Timothy 6:12 

Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

We can fight the good fight of faith by fleeing temptation, pursuing godliness and sharing the Lord with others. 

Ever since I became a Christian at seven years old, I’ve had a strong desire to live a godly life.

But my biggest battle has been taking hold of God’s promises and allowing their truths to move from my head to believing them in the deep places of my heart. That’s what I have to fight for. 

We can know the truth that God loves us but believing it is another thing entirely. 

And so even though I fully understand that I’m saved by faith and not by works (Ephesians 2:8-9) sometimes I still feel this pressing feeling that somehow, I’m not enough. And so I’ve tried to prove myself to myself….by not messing up. Afraid of failing. Taking risks. Afraid of not being liked. 

And then there’s my fear of impending suffering. Afraid of sadness and pain. Accidents. Death. Losing loved ones. And the list goes on.

A few months ago, we had our tree cut down in our front yard. For months, the grass looked the same with just a big patch of dirt where the tree used to be.

But recently I went outside and thought the grass was covered in weeds. It looks like tiny trees are shooting up all over the lawn! New growth is sprouting from the roots of the tree.

Fear is kind of like that. If we don’t take care of the root issue, it will continue to spread its roots and sprout up into areas of our lives where we don’t want it to be. 

I believe one of the root issues of fear is doubting God’s immense love for us in our hearts.

When God’s love takes hold of our hearts, our lives change. Share on X

Until we truly accept His love, our fears are just going to shoot up from the ground and spread.

So how do we get God’s love to reach our hearts?

Sometimes, to help it along, we have to just get up and prepare for battle. Put our armor on. And fight.

Once we start fighting the good fight of faith, we’ll begin to personally experience God’s grace and power through our weakness. 

When we experience God’s power and peace working inside us, His love then becomes real and tangible.

When we start to experience that, we’ll not only feel the love we know to be true, but we’ll also get a taste of freedom from that ever-gripping fear. 

That’s because the Bible says that the truth shall set us free. And the living, loving, ever-present, omnipotent, perfect presence of God is that very truth that sets us free.

So what does it take to fight fear? It means we take action to do everything we can to allow the truth of God’s word to take hold of our hearts.

We do this through:

Determination

Once we’ve made a choice to change, we need to have the determination it takes to put that decision into action. 

Prayer

The Bible says if we draw near to God, he will draw near to us. He promises to answer us when we call to him. Turn your fears and worries into prayers to overcome them. He calms our anxious thoughts with His truth and peace. Praise Him ahead of time for his answers. Praising Him is trusting in His love by believing He will answer you. 

Scripture memory

They say in order to form a habit it takes 30 days. Take your fearful thoughts and replace them with the truth of God’s word. Make it a habit and do it every day. We need to train our minds to think differently. That happens by replacing fear with truth.

Surround yourself with a community of other believers.

Battles are not meant to be fought alone.

Romans 12:5 In Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

Galatians 6:2 Carry each other’s burdens and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ.

As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)

God shows His love for us through other believers! 

 Action

What are you afraid of? Why? 

Are you afraid of the unknown? Sudden disaster and loss? Failure? Rejection?

We have the power of God on our side. He is our strength. 

We will always have His love! 

Romans 8:28 tells us that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God! We don’t have to earn it. We don’t have to be enough. And we can never lose it!

We can make mistakes. We can fail. We can be disliked by others. 

But God’s love, His perfect love prevails. He forgives us for every sin. He knows we’re not perfect, and that’s why Jesus went to the cross!

Striving to be perfect and striving to be like Christ are two different things. We strive for perfection in order to make ourselves feel better.

We strive to be holy because the love of God spurs us on to want to share His love with others by reflecting His image.

We should continue to fight against our sin nature but we must rest in the fact that Jesus is enough!

We can let the love of God pour over us and can take hold of his grace. Nothing we do could ever make us good enough because sin has tainted even our best efforts. 

And that’s ok because the blood of Christ makes us perfectly clean before God. And now we can approach the throne with confidence. That’s his love pouring over us.

Friends, let’s take hold of it together!

And then one day, we’ll be able to say, just like Paul:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 2 Timothy 4:7

How about you?  Has the depth of God’s love for you reached your heart?

I’m so glad you’ve joined during this series, Trading Fear for Faith. Over the past few years, I’ve been taking active steps to face my fears. I’ve learned so much about what it truly means to live in the freedom of trusting Jesus and not allow fear to control my life. You can check out previous posts below. 

You can download free worksheets to help fight fear by signing up below.