At the beginning of this study, which was presented during a worker's training, a question came: What is fear?

There are different types of fear: Fear based on reality (e.g. encountering a shooter on a rampage) or fear based on our perception of reality (e.g. I just know I'll fail if I take up that new business idea). For many of us, the fear that cripples us mentally and emotionally is the one based on our perception of reality. I believe that God is speaking to someone about overcoming fear and stepping out in faith. Here, I present 7 important yet simple facts about fear. It is difficult, if not impossible to fight something that we do not understand. I hope that as we gain more understanding about fear, we will become empowered to overcome it.

Fear is a learned behavior: if we can learn it, then we can un-learn it!
It is our protective response to our perceived volatile environment
Fear is a wall we build to protect ourselves but the wall locks us in
Nothing of greatness can be achieved without removing the limitation of fear
Decisions made out of fear will always produce undesired outcomes. For instance, what happened to Job who said: "For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me."
The prescription for fear is insight and total trust in the word of God.
The word, which we have experienced and tested is our antidote to fear
- The word is continuously revelational; the greater knowledge we unlock, the bolder we become.
- We read through the scriptures some bold statements made by men who have been tested.
- Some of us are working with less than 1% of this capability.

Next week, I will complete this series with a brief post on Peter's 'Walking on Water' moment and what we can learn from it. Until then, think about this: What would you do today if you were completely free from fear?

Thank you for reading and see you next week!

Osi Ukomadu