You Can

When something triggers fear, stress, helplessness, anger, or anxiety in you, you can:

Give in to it.

Let it shape the way you think about God, yourself, your circumstances, and everyone else, until you become a version of what you hate.

Run from it.

Avoiding the situation and anything that reminds you of it, which often means finding some way to numb yourself against facing it.

Control it.

Overwhelm the circumstance using any means until you perceive it’s powerless to hurt you. But being in full control of your world usually means you have to dominate others with fear to compensate for your own.

Displace it.

Everyone saw Goliath as massive and unbeatable, but David saw him as having already lost in the light of God’s promises to David. David displaced fear with the truth God gave him. All thought of how scary and strong Goliath appeared was overwhelmed by how wonderful and powerful God is.

From a place of rest in God’s presence, you can displace fear, see circumstances as he does, dream, plan, and strategize with him, and take actions that can transform people and nations.

“David said to the Philistine, ‘You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty’ ” (1 Samuel 17:45).