It was probably a late afternoon or early evening. The sun could have been setting for all I know, yet still we were unaware of our surroundings and the world at large. Our only focus at the time was the large pool of bubbles formed in the bathtub and the pleasure we derived just playing in them.

Minutes merged into hours or maybe it was seconds into minutes. Either way, it seemed like a lifetime of fun for my sister and I that day. We were having the time of our lives.

One second, it was fun, foam and bubbles and the next a slip, a bang, loud screaming and blood. My sister had slipped in the bathtub. She had hit her chin on the edge and procured such a cut that she was taken to the hospital for stitches. Needless to say, that fun bathtime was over.

A few decades later, we are both adults and I have children (some of whom are older than we were at the time of this unfortunate incident). Yet only recently did I stop seeing a picture of one of my girls slipping in the bathtub. It almost seemed like an expectation of some sort and with this expectation came nervousness and anxiety. In other words, fear.

The fear of a repeat incident.

Fear is a falsehood that lurks in the shadow taking the form of an apparent original .

Most fears are built based on events or ‘near misses’, others are simply from thoughts of ‘what ifs’.

Fear is false. Fear is not the truth. Truth always brings peace, even in difficult situations. One of the quickest ways of identifying fear is the absence of peace.

Fear thrives where there is a lack of knowledge, where there is darkness or where there is ignorance. Fear builds expectation and expectations are fuelled by information.

Information may not necessarily be acquired through a particular source. Information could be acquired through anything around us. Some people are informed just by the attitudes around them, others by what they intentionally take in through media, books, magazines or sheer influence from peers.

There are those who have lived with negative expectations for as long as they can remember. They have literally lived their lives in what may never be, borrowing from tomorrow, living in uncertainty yet hanging on to the fear of what may be if they let go.

These negative expectations may have been as a result of past events or external influences, failures or general life expectations. Whatever informs, influences or affects you.

The antidote to fear is knowing the truth of God’s word

“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

John 8:32 NKJ

There is freedom in the knowledge of the truth and you cannot fear and be free at the same time.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1: 7 NKJV

Another propeller of fear is appearance. By definition, appearance is “the way that someone or something looks”. However, something looking a certain way does not necessarily mean it actually is that way.

Appearances can be deceiving; never make conclusions based on appearances. Fear makes you focus on things that aren’t working. On past failures. On doctors’ report. On your pedigree or thereof. On hurtful words spoken to you by family members, the list goes on…

Fear becomes your reality when it takes root in your mind. It feeds your imagination and thought life and eventually becomes real. Fear is as real as you allow it.

1John 4:18 says … “but perfect love casts out fear….”

God’s love for us is perfect, complete, secure. Receiving that love and learning to walk in it is key to dispelling fear because fear is a lie.