Faith over Fear: Overcoming Fear by Faith

By Charity A. Lane

Faith is capable of completely overcoming fear, and the apostle Peter learned this simple truth while struggling through the darkness of overwhelming fear in the early days of Christianity. When he had grown in faith and had become the rock of the early church, Peter shared the lessons he had learned in scripture, just as Jesus had instructed him to do.

In Faith over Fear, author Charity A. Lane shares her own spiritual journey from the darkest moments of her life, where she was able to learn the same simple truth when she turned to scripture in desperation and stumbled upon the faith-filled words of the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 5:810. These words inspired a battle against fear, which taught Charity the truth about the weakness of fear and the strength of faith.

Let Peters words and Charitys own journey become the inspired foundation of your renewed strength in the face of fear. Faith over Fear can offer you a simple, easy-to-follow path toward growing a strong faith that is completely capable of overcoming every fear in this life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9781973627470

Charity A. Lane

Charity A. Lane is a wife to Toby, a mother to TJ and Toby Jo, and a child of the one true God. She is also a nurse who believes that the greatest purpose in this life is to help fellow humans through the most difficult struggles of life. This purpose inspired her to write Faith over Fear, and Charity believes that by chronicling her own struggle with fear and sharing the lessons shes learned about overcoming fear through faith, she will be able to help others through their own struggles with fear.

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Copyright © 2018 Charity A. Lane.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

HCSB:

Scripture quotations marked HCSB are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Holman CSB®, and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

NLT:

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

KJV:

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

NKJV:

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-9736-2746-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2745-6 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-2747-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018905429

WestBow Press rev. date: 06/25/2018

Contents

Faith and Fear

Introduction

Chapter 1 Fortune and Faith

Chapter 2 The Snare and the Snake

Chapter 3 Freedom from Fear

Stand Firm—Foundations of Faith

Chapter 4 Stand Firm

Chapter 5 God Is Able to

Chapter 6 God Will

Strong in Faith

Chapter 7 Be Strong

Chapter 8 Getting to the Heart of Trust

Chapter 9 Finding Peace of Mind

Chapter 10 Anchoring Hope for the Soul

About the Author

Endnotes

Faith

and

Fear

Introduction

Christian author James Hastings wrote, Fear is the needle that pierces us that it may carry a thread to bind us to heaven.

The first time I read those words, I knew exactly what Hastings meant because I have felt the disabling prick of the needle of fear. At one point in my life, I thought the needle of fear might just be the death of me, but in that darkest moment, I stumbled upon the thread I believe Hastings spoke of, the simple promise that my faith in my heavenly Father could conquer my fear.

Over time, the thread of faith that was born out of my darkest moments with fear became my own personal victory over fear by binding me to my heavenly Father and to heaven in ways that I never imagined were possible.

I want to share with you what I have learned so far through my own lifelong struggle with fear. If you’ll join me on this journey, we’ll take a thorough look at the needle of fear so we can clearly see the holes that it pierces in our hearts, our minds, and our souls. Then we’ll bind ourselves to heaven by weaving a triple-braided thread of faith through our hearts with trust, our minds with peace, and our souls with hope.

Chapter 1

Fortune and Faith

As a young child, I often woke up from a dead sleep in the late hours of the night, terrified beyond reason. But it was not of anything in particular. It was everything. Alone, I would lie there shaking in my bed, afraid to move and almost too scared to breathe. It seemed as though I could almost feel the darkness swirling around me, as if the inky blackness of the night air were alive and closing in on me.

In the midst of that nightmarish terror, I knew that my only hope of peace lay at the other end of my family’s small home. He was sound asleep in his own bed. I knew that, if I could gain just enough courage to jump out of my bed and run down the hallway, through the living room, and into my parents’ bedroom, my father would rescue me. He would wrap me in his arms, pull me close, and whisper, Don’t be afraid. Then, as if by magic, my fears would fade.

So grabbing my blanket to use as a shield against all the terrifying creatures of the night, I would gather what little courage I could muster and run as fast as I could through the ever-thickening darkness to my father. And when I got to him, he would gently pull me close and whisper in my ear, Don’t be afraid. Then all my fears would fade away as if they had never existed … for a time at least.

As I grew out of childhood, I eventually learned to sleep in my own bed at night, but the paralyzing fear that surfaced in the earliest years of my life never quite left me in peace. In fact, fear became a more powerful force in my life than I ever realized it could be.

The fear that had awakened me in the darkness of the night began to follow me through the light of day. Worry became a constant companion, anxiety was an unwanted friend who stuck closer than a brother, and panic was the crazy uncle who occasionally dropped in on my life unannounced, leaving a trail of chaos and despair in his wake.

Fear overwhelmed my life, and I feared that one day it would completely engulf me in its power until, surprisingly enough, I found the peace that I so desperately needed in much the same place that I had found it as a young child, my Father’s embrace and whispered words of peace.

A Hope-Filled Fortune

I was pregnant for the second time, and though doctors had assured me that a second pregnancy wouldn’t be nearly as difficult as my first had been, my body was proving them wrong. I felt deathly ill. I was scared to death and literally terrified of death.

One night, in spite of my physical and spiritual discomfort, my pregnancy cravings called for Chinese food. The food didn’t satisfy my heart’s desire for comfort and peace, but something else I found that night did.

Packed up in the brown paper bag, alongside my General Tso’s chicken, was a fortune cookie. This was no ordinary fortune cookie. When I gently cracked it open and read the words inside, I knew with more certainly than I had ever known before in my life that I had heard the voice of God. The tiny slip of paper nestled in that fortune cookie read, May my faith always exceed my fears. The price is too great to go through life afraid.

My very pregnant and extremely emotional state got the best of me as tears streamed down my face and into my plate of fried rice and spicy chicken. I was undeniably familiar with the too great price of going through life afraid. I had been living that truth for most of my life. The first part of the statement, however, really captured my attention. I began to wonder why my faith wasn’t exceeding my fears.

Why was the faith in God that I had proclaimed since early childhood failing me in the area I needed it the most and leaving me to pay the too great price of struggling through life in emotional and spiritual turmoil while being afraid?

At that time in my life, I probably read proverbs from fortune cookies more often than I read my Bible, hence the need for God to speak to me in such as absurd manner. And I immediately knew that was at least part of the problem behind my failing faith.

Conviction embraced me, and I began to wonder if the answers I knew I so desperately needed in my life could be found in the Word of God that had collected dust in the top drawer of my nightstand. In perhaps the darkest season of my life, at the urging of an extraordinary fortune cookie, I cracked open my Bible with an anticipation born of a hope that I had nearly forgotten I possessed.

I don’t remember