It’s an interesting observation when I ask the same question to men and then to women, “Where do you think your fears are hiding"? Men often fear rejection, like being turned down in a relationship or job, and failure—such as inability to provide for their family or trying out for a particular position in a sport and then failing. Fear of a perception of incompetence and weakness also ranks high on the list for men. There are others, for sure, but those rank consistently high.
Most women share these same fears somewhere on our “fear list” and not necessarily in the same order. While we fear rejection and failure and false perceptions, I find that our fear list is more extensive and usually more deep-seated. What I mean is, women seem to have a more difficult time releasing certain fears and remaining free of them.
To add to the female fear list, we often fear loss of independence while at the same time, being left alone; abandonment, fear of aging, fear of financial instability, body image fears, acceptance fears, fidelity fears, and the list goes on. We’d be in a much better position to confront these fears if we had a better understanding where these fears are hiding, right? John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that you may have life and have it to the full.”
The enemy’s primary objective is to steal, kill, and destroy. He will make every attempt to steal the promises we have received from the Lord, to kill our identity as a child of God, and to destroy the peace and joy Jesus granted us. Now, let’s uncover some of Satan’s favorite fear hideouts. Some, or several, of these you may recognize as having been effective in your own life.
FAVORITE FEAR HIDEOUTS
1. Distractions
Wow, has it not been a distracting season? We often fall for distractions when the demand for our attention is high. For example, the current upheaval in our country, the pandemic, a friend or family member encounters difficulty and we let ourselves be drawn into these scenarios beyond what is sustainable.
Another distraction is comparison shopping through social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media invites us to compare ourselves to others. We can spend hours on social media comparing ourselves, our socio-economic status, jobs, houses, relationships, marriages, spouses, children, dogs, and cats to other peoples.’ Comparison is tremendously disruptive and a breeding ground for insecurity and dissatisfaction. So, let's add those two hiding places to our list.
News and social media are certainly not the only peace saboteurs that barrage us daily. There are so many—like the rude person who steals our parking spot or cuts us off. Not to mention the countless distractions that happen at home. We still must manage and resolve many of the distractions. The goal is to not get derailed by them. Come back to the awareness of God’s presence. Come back to God’s Word. Come back to the objective of peace.
2. Pain, Disappointments, Trauma
Some of this is unavoidable. People have done mean, horrible things to us that have scarred us for life. And some pain we’ve brought on ourselves. Regardless of how it happened, it’s crucial that we not hold onto the pain. Pain digs pits. Absolutely, there’s a time to grieve. But then we need to decide. We can stay wallowing in the pit of pain or allow healing to begin. To do so, it helps to remind ourselves of our identity, inheritance, and purpose in Christ Jesus. And we may have to do this over and over again until it sinks in who we are, Whose we are, and Who our Healer is. Life is too short, and our purpose and destiny is too incredible to stay stuck in the pit.
3. Guilt, Shame, Blame
Most of us have done things in our lives we are terribly ashamed of and we’ve grieved those decisions and the resulting consequences. As with Adam and Eve, shame tells us we’re not worthy. That we should never ask to come back into the Father’s arms. But shame is a scam. And our heavenly Father has never released us from His arms even when we’ve turned our faces away to behold shame instead of His loving-kindness. Let’s not be scammed any longer.
4. Isolation
This tool of the devil is a formidable battle strategy. If the enemy can get us off on our own little island of struggle and make us believe we’re all alone, we are easy pickings. Sitting ducks. Here’s the truth. Every single struggle you’re walking through, someone else is too. And others have not only walked through that same struggle but are now on the other side proclaiming victory in the name of Jesus. If you don’t have people available who will pray for you, submit your prayer request to our ministry at prayer@greaterthingstoday.com. We’d be honored to pray with you and for you.
5. Discouragement
Have you ever set out on a road trip with a projected ETA (estimated time of arrival) only to be challenged with roadwork, an accidental wrong turn, and heavy traffic? Now your ETA is blown, and you have no idea when or even if you’ll ever arrive. The devil loves when we become discouraged and will throw every roadblock he can in our path to delay us and keep us from believing we’ll ever arrive to our destination. But he is a liar.
6. Unforgiveness
Similar to pain, disappointment, and trauma, we are ultimately in control of the effects of unforgiveness on our lives. Unforgiveness is a ball-and-chain shackled to our ankles, and we hold the key to freedom in our own hands. The enemy doesn’t want us to walk free, so he keeps dropping bread crumb reminders and whispers of pain. He continuously feeds our anger to keep the coals of unforgiveness alive. Forgiveness can be excruciatingly hard to give especially when it hasn’t been requested, and when the pain of wrongdoing has cut deep, wide gashes in our souls. But forgiveness begins with making a tiny baby step--a choice, not necessarily to forgive, but to be willing to be made willing to forgive. Once we have submitted our will to God to be made willing to forgive, it is God who works within us the will, ability and power to do things for his good purpose (Phil. 2:13), which includes working his forgiveness in our hearts.
7. Bitterness
Bitterness is anger, hurt, disappointment, and unforgiveness with a spirit root attached to it. It must be pulled up by the root, rebuked, and cast out forever. It’s as simple as that. Otherwise, it grows inside us, contaminating as it grows, poisoning our perspective of identity, inheritance, and purpose. It must be eradicated.
Once we become aware that fear, discouragement, bitterness, unforgiveness, depression, anxiety, etc. are lies and deceit of the devil, we are well on our way to victory. We are not alone in having to face such attacks. Satan taunted Jesus over and over during his forty-day fast in the wilderness (Matt. 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13).
The devil knew Jesus’s weakened state, and that’s when Old Scratch started troubling and testing Jesus. That’s exactly what happens to us, too. The devil will come to test us when we are weak, tired, frustrated, hurt, and distracted. Why? That’s when we are most vulnerable. The devil fights dirty! He’s a roaring, devouring lion, slinking and sneaking up on unsuspecting, unaware victims.
The good news is that Jesus gave us, by example, our weapon in battling the devil’s temptations—God’s Word (Heb. 4:12-13). Now we know the strategies and the artillery for uncovering and facing down fear! Remember, you are more than a conqueror through Him who loves you! (Rom. 8:31-39).
