Smackdown: 3 Tactics to Defeat Your Fears

Jerusha: I’m giving away a print copy of Lynette Eason’s Moving Target to one of you who leaves a comment below! So read on and join the conversation!

Whack.

Another spider met its end. And so did a little bit of my fear.

2018 has been the year of the spider at my house. Seems like many kinds of spiders got together and decided to strategically attack my house in waves throughout the warmer months. We had pale, white-colored spiders in the spring, big black ones in the heart of summer, and now spindly little things (and some lingering large black ones) as summer comes to an end.

As someone who struggles with a degree of arachnophobia, the onslaught of spiders hasn’t been fun. But as I’ve been forced to deal with them nearly every day, I’ve also been forced to confront my fear.

Surprisingly, my fear has lessened instead of increased as I’ve successfully battled these creatures and my terrors. I’ve been learning through practice, again and again, that I can be victorious over spiders and my fear of them.

I’m coming to realize that God is using this attack of spiders to teach me about battling and beating fear of all kinds. Whatever our fears are, we can claim victory by following some tactics I’ve learned while duking it out with spiders.

Sometimes the victory may come gradually, as you tackle fears one at a time and they slowly lessen, but other times you may triumph over a fear all at once. Either way, trust God to give you the victory and start to seize that victory now with these three tips:

3 Tactics to Defeat Your Fears

1. Offense

In any battle, a good offense is key. With spiders, the most effective way to keep them under control (or eliminate them indoors completely) is to offensively use a bug spray or some method of deterring or killing them remotely, even before you see them appear.

We can preempt our fears in a similar way. Philippians 4:6-7 says,

…do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

If we turn away from anxiety and instead go to God in thankful prayer and supplication, we are guaranteed a guard for our hearts and minds—the indescribable peace of God. Sounds like a pretty effective “fear spray” to me.

We can additionally prevent fear from moving into our hearts and minds by being in the Word, knowing the powerful, merciful, and loving God we serve, and by memorizing Scripture to carry in our hearts so we won’t sin against God by harboring fear.

2. Action

I’ve learned through observation that if spiders are allowed to exist where they are, they won’t just stay there in the same amount of space and at the same number. Instead, they’ll multiply and expand their territory, overrunning however much of a room or house they’re allowed to occupy undeterred.

Fears are the same way. We may notice we’re a little afraid of something now and then, but dismiss it as unimportant. The fear might be simple to avoid, so we take the easy path around it and convince ourselves the fear isn’t a problem at all. We can happily co-exist with that fear, it seems.

But when fear is allowed to occupy your heart and mind undeterred, it will multiply and grow to overtake as much space inside you as it can. We tend not to notice until the problem has run rampant and is much harder to eliminate. Then, we have many more fears than we started out with and we have habits and patterns we’ve developed to cater to those fears.

In short, we’ve allowed fear to take over our lives. With God, it’s still possible to vanquish our fears even after we’ve given them control of our lives, hearts, and minds, but the process is longer and more challenging.

So as soon as you notice a little worry, stress, anxiety showing up in your mind, don’t wait. Take action immediately.

3. Smackdown

My fear of spiders is at its worst when I need to deal with eliminating them myself. Part of the problem in the past was that I tended to miss my first hit with a flyswatter. Since I have decent aim and coordination in other circumstances, I figured my fear was instinctively making me dodge the spider at the last moment. As a result, my confidence in the attack was undermined because I knew I would likely miss the first time.

And don’t you hate it when you hit a spider on the ceiling or even a wall, and it ends up flying at you as soon as you remove the swatter? That happened to me, too. Or the spiders would usually fall to the floor where I had to search for them, and hopefully finish the job before they ran away.

Then one day, I watched my brother deftly kill a spider with one fell blow of the flyswatter. The smashed spider stuck to the swatter when he pulled it away instead of dropping to the floor or flying at him.

I realized what he was doing differently than I was. When he struck, he held the flyswatter in place on the spider for a moment before releasing pressure.

I tried that the next time I needed to attack a spider myself. It took tremendous courage to override my fear screaming at me to get away, but the technique worked. Not only did it kill the spider faster, meaning I didn’t have to search for it on the floor, but I also became accurate with my first hit.

This tactic continues to work. Somehow, knowing that I’m going to have to hold the swatter in place for longer makes me overcome my instinctive urge to avoid or immediately pull away. The result has been greater accuracy and effectiveness in defeating spiders, since following through with the strike means delivering maximum impact. And now, I have increased confidence when I go to face a spider because I know I have a powerful strategy.

We need to attack our fears the same way. We need to override our instinctive urge to back away or avoid them at the last second because that seems like the easier and less frightening path. Instead, we need to charge at them armed with the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

And when we use that blade, we need to cast aside all doubt, hesitation, and disbelief. Instead, we need to wield the Shield of Faith and fully trust that our God will give us the victory He promised.

I have set the Lord always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. – Psalm 16:8

Having faith that God’s promise to give us victory is one hundred percent true will give our blow against fear its deadly force. We will be able to hold forth our Sword with a steady hand, striking our fear dead-center, and not drawing back until the fear is defeated.

If you practice these fear smackdown tactics every day, you’ll see your fears decrease as they’re eliminated, one by one. Remember, we already have the victory, and we have the strength of the Lord on our side.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. – Ephesians 6:10

Have you tried these or similar strategies to fight fear? Do you have another one you’d add to the list? Please share!

---

I’m offering one free print copy of Lynette Eason’s suspense novel, Moving Target, to one of you, my fellow Fear Warriors! To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment below! (Winner will be randomly selected September 24, 2018; winner must have continental U. S. address.)

When Maddy McKay and Quinn Holcombe don’t show up for Quinn’s surprise birthday party, his friends know that something is very wrong. Their search turns up little beyond evidence that Quinn and Maddy just decided to take off for a long overdue vacation. But it soon becomes apparent that they did not leave of their own accord.

Maddy awakens in a cement room with no idea where she is. But it’s not long before she realizes she’s in the clutches of a madman exacting revenge by hunting. His prey of choice? Humans. Now Maddy and Quinn must run for their lives, hoping to find their killer before the next game begins. Because if they don’t win this game, they die.

Fast, furious, and flirty, Lynette Eason’s relentless suspense barely gives her readers time to catch their breath in this third thrilling installment of the Elite Guardians series.