290: Best of Episode: Ep 242: "How Can I Manage My Fear of the Future?"

If you struggle with managing anxiety around your fear of the future, you are not alone. Today is a replay of the most popular episode this year and as we are all creating new year goals, it is important to bring it back. As we head into 2025, I hope this episode helps with ideas around managing fear so you feel confident to step into your God-given dreams – no matter what comes your way.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN:

[04:50] Is Fear Bad?
[07:42] What is The Difference Between Worldly Fear And Godly Fear?
[11:16] What is The Concept of Pachad And Yirah?
[15:20] Are You Stuck in The Fear Coping Mechanism Cycle?
[17:09] What Is A Healthy Coping Mechanism To Deal With Fear?
[18:11] Are There “Cracks In Your Foundation” When It Comes to Trusting God?
[21:55] Working Through Fear with the “Calm Your Anxiety Toolkit”
[24:05] The Exciting Things That Are Coming in 2025!
[28:10] A Powerful Prayer Dedicating Our Upcoming Year to Christ

[04:50] Is Fear Bad?

Fear does not mean that we are broken or doing something wrong. Fear is simply a biological response to an unknown situation. Fear is not inherently a bad thing, however, we live in a world where we are constantly inundated with new information and our bodies are not designed to handle this. Because we constantly have so much going on, we often retreat into fear to protect ourselves. At this moment, we have the choice to either retreat and give in to fear or invite God in to help us navigate our fearful thoughts.

[07:42] What is The Difference Between Worldly Fear And Godly Fear?

Worldly fear is focused on us and our limited absolutes. It is focused on what we can do and our efforts. Godly fear, on the other hand, focuses on who God is and what He is capable of. When we can transition from worldly fear to godly fear, we're saying that He is capable of things that we cannot even see, to release the fear because it is bigger than who we are or what we can see at this moment.

Worldly fear also relies only on our current knowledge while Godly fear rests in knowing that God has a grand view of the entire scene. One analogy I have come back to time and again is the image of being in a backyard, standing against a wooden fence. At a house we lived in a few years ago, we had one of those wood fences with little peepholes and I remember hearing a strange noise coming from my neighbor's yard. I was curious so I peeked through one of the tiny holes in the fence and I could not see much but could tell something was happening. So I went up to the second story to look into their yard and the full picture came into view.

This has become a powerful analogy for me about the difference between worldly fear and godly fear. With worldly fear, we are stuck looking through the peephole, relying on our limited perspective. It’s like trying to make sense of a much larger picture while only seeing a tiny part. But with godly fear, it is like we are stepping back and seeing everything from above. We trust that God has the full view – even when we don’t. It is about resting in the knowledge that He sees the whole scene and is in control. And yes, the idea of “resting in fear” might sound contradictory. But godly fear is not about panic or dread. It is about the trust and peace that comes from knowing we do not have to understand everything because He already does.

[11:16] What is The Concept of Pachad And Yirah?

Both pachad and yirah are Hebrew words used to describe fear. Pachad fear is that worldly fear whereas yirah is like godly fear. Another way that we can see the difference between worldly fear and Godly fear is that worldly fear stays paralyzed without all the information because the information is the source of comfort. Information is what makes us feel safe to be able to move forward or to feel better. Our godly fear allows us to confidently move forward with direction, even if not all of the information is present. There is not a single character in the Bible that had 100% clarity from God. They may have had direction from Him but they did not have all of the answers. We need to stop letting the idea of needing to have all of the information from us from moving forward.

[15:20] Are You Stuck in The Fear Coping Mechanism Cycle?

The final difference between worldly fear and godly fear is that worldly fear is locked in a fear-coping mechanism cycle. We are forced to create a coping mechanism to deal with the fear and make us feel more at ease. This does not make the fear disappear, it only temporarily masks the fear. That means we are only perpetuating the cycle, so we continue to stay stuck in that worldly fear instead of letting go and surrendering to the godly fear and resting in expectant hope.

This could look like eating a brownie, having a glass of wine, bingeing on Netflix, or hanging out with a friend. All of the things that we have learned to turn to as a way to soothe ourselves. They are not necessarily bad but they are perpetuating the cycle and not solving it. We could think we are dealing with the fear but we are actually staying stuck in that worldly fear versus if we deal with it from that Godly fear perspective – we are transitioning it to Godly fear. In this instance, we soothe fear and we are resting in expectant hope.

[17:09] What Is A Healthy Coping Mechanism To Deal With Fear?

Resting in expectant hope is a healthy coping mechanism to deal with fear. This is what God tells us to do. He shows us how to release and give those burdens to Him. Matthew 11:28 says “Come to me all who are weary and laden with problems and I'll give you rest” but oftentimes we do not do that next step of fixing our thoughts (Philippians 4) so the cycle continues.

[18:11] Are There “Cracks In Your Foundation” When It Comes to Trusting God?

People often want to fully surrender their issues to God but struggle to do so. It is important to look within and see what is keeping us from trusting God in this area. One of the very first things we talk about in the Christian Mindset Makeover is this idea of what lies have we allowed ourselves to believe about God. A lot of times, these lies have appeared after we have walked through some challenging times and were left wondering “Where was God?” Without knowing it, we have allowed cracks in our foundation of trust in the Lord to exist. When this happens, it is really hard to move forward in expectant hope. Episode 249: Learning to Expectantly Believe God for Big Dreams (Even If You’ve Been Hurt) is a great one to support you in this.

Isaiah 26:7-8 says “You are a God, who does what is right, and you smooth out the path ahead of them. Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws. Our heart desires to glorify Your name.”

Trust is at the crux between obedience and surrender. If we have had that trust shaken, it is going to be really hard to obey the Lord and follow through with what He says, but also to be able to rest in hope. Because our brain is always trying to keep us safe, if we have not removed all of the obstacles, some resistance is going to occur. Surrendering is an act of trust and obedience is often a precursor to surrender.

Like it says in Isaiah 26:8, “Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws.” We can take that step of obedience because we give in to trust and ultimately, the bridge between obedience and surrender is trust. If there is a rickety bridge between those two things or no bridge at all, it is really hard to surrender.

[21:55] Working Through Fear with the “Calm Your Anxiety Toolkit”

If this is something that you are struggling with, you are not alone. Is time to face this head-on and ask the Lord to show you why you are struggling to trust in Him and break this fear cycle. If you are unsure of how to make that happen, the Calm Your Anxiety Tool Kit helps you create a custom plan to identify what is triggering your anxious thoughts and get you unstuck from the fear cycle. You can come back to this resource again and again when fear strikes.

[24:05] The Exciting Things That Are Coming in 2025!

There are so many exciting things coming in 2025. One of them happened already, and that is the release of my new book Emotional Confidence. The idea of writing a book has been on my heart since I was a little girl and the method has been years in the making. If you have not picked up your copy yet, I highly recommend starting it in the New Year.

We know that there are going to be things coming up this year that are going to frustrate us – not everything is going to be great despite our false expectations around it. Your life can be dramatically changed by this book so please pick it up to allow these truths to begin to change your life.

I will also be introducing you to the Emotional Confidence Club this year. I have not talked about it much but it is something that we have put together around the concepts of the book. I created this because I know it is easy to just read a book and say “Okay this is great but how do I do that?” And no change is going to happen without implementation. I know that sometimes it is very overwhelming and we feel alone doing it by ourselves. So I wanted to give women an opportunity to work with me and also have a community to support them. We have club aspects and a coaching element to it. This is the place where you can start to implement these tools into your life. I will be sharing more and inviting you to the Emotional Confidence Club in early 2025 so keep your eyes out. I am looking forward to 2025 and I hope you are too!

[28:10] A Powerful Prayer Dedicating Our Upcoming Year to Christ

Let’s close this year out with a quick prayer together for us to remember and focus on the entire purpose of our being, which is to follow Christ and dedicate this upcoming year to Him:

“Father, God. I love you. I thank you. I thank you for the opportunity to look back at this year and to see all of the ways that you showed up. Thank you for how you provided, thank you for the miraculous ways that you showed yourself as real, the ways you comforted us, and the ways you carried us through some really, really hard and challenging things. Thank you for what you taught us. Thank you for the ways that you have grown us and strengthened us. You've made us stronger in our walk in our faith and our trust in You.

Father, I pray that we could look around now and say, ‘Lord, what's next? What do you have for me? What areas do I need to have a little refinement in? What areas do I need to own? What areas do I need to let go of? What dreams might you have ahead for me? Where do I need to be more committed or disciplined in my life? What are the places that, if I start here, would affect these other places?’ Show me, Lord, what that is. Show my friends what that is as they're looking forward to this next year and thinking about what's ahead. I thank you that you're faithful. You're faithful to answer our prayers. You're faithful to guide us. Lord, you guide us towards peaceful streams. You guide us towards good lives and destinies. That doesn't mean that there won't be problems or struggles or suffering, that is just part of life, and especially a Christian's life. We are not called to have an absence of suffering. We know that Lord, we're asking you to help us to know the right steps to take in 2025 with what you have put right before.

Right now, what do you want us to do, and what would be the best next step forward? I'm grateful that you're going to be speaking to each one of us about what that is, and that you're going to be with us. You're going to be with us, even though we have this tiny glimpse of what could be ahead, and we begin to walk into that we know that our plans don't always work out the way we expect, because there are all kinds of variables happening, and that's fine. We're grateful that we can step into this new year knowing that you are in charge of it. You are 100% going to be with us. That is our strength, that is our hope, that is our glory, and that's our praise. We thank You, God, that we can stand on that we can stand on your love. We can stand on your truth that never changes. And that is our foundation moving into this new year, it's in your name that we pray amen”

Many blessings to you from me for this New Year. I am grateful that you show up every week and we get to have these conversations together. Let’s make 2025 about Jesus and the plans that He has for us.

RESOURCES:

Tired of up-and-down feelings stealing your peace, sabotaging your relationships, and filling your mind with self-defeating thoughts? If so, make sure to get my new book, “Emotional Confidence: 3 Simple Steps to Manage Emotions with Science and Scripture”.

Want to see what Emotional Confidence is about? Download the first chapter for FREE!

Do anxious thoughts consume your mind + steal your peace? If so, check out the “Calm Your Anxiety Toolkit”

RELATED EPISODES:

163: How I Take Courage, Manage Anxiety, and Release Fear with Amy Debrucque

201: It's Time to Make a Plan to Manage Anxiety, Release Fear and Stop Worry

239: Stuck in An “Expired” Season? Seeking God for Perspective on What’s Next with Shayna Rattler

249: Learning to Expectantly Believe God for Big Dreams (Even If You’ve Been Hurt)