When Children Are Afraid by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio
Fear is part of the human condition. It starts early and can last a lifetime.
So, how can we, as parents and grandparents, deal with fear when it manifests in the lives of our children and grandchildren?
Here are a few suggestions from my experience in dealing with fear in my own life and in the lives of my children and grandchildren:
1-Recognize that fear is a spirit. Scripture makes this clear in 2 Timothy 1: 7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Just as love is the expression of God’s Holy Spirit, so is fear the expression of Satan’s evil spirit. Satan uses fear to ensnare us and to draw us away from God. And Satan starts early by using fear in the lives of our little ones, even when they are still in the womb.
2-Because fear is a spirit, we have to deal with it by spiritual means.
Ordinary human means will never eradicate fear. Only God’s weapons of spiritual warfare will do so. The Word says this in 2 Corinthians 10: 4: “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
3-If fear has developed into a stronghold, deliverance is often necessary to eliminate it. Deliverance is the ministry of casting out demons. It is a ministry to which all believers are called, as shown in Mark 16: 17. There may be times when a spirit of fear has so entrenched a child that deliverance ministry is required.
If not dealt with at its onset, fear can become a stronghold in a child’s life. A stronghold is a pattern of thinking that develops over time and that can overpower a person’s mind to the point that his perspective on life becomes warped and skewed. We see the result of this warped mindset caused by a stronghold of fear in those who struggle with phobias and other mental disorders.
There is much more I could write on this topic. Suffice it to say that fear must be confronted head-on. As with any other temptation, we confront it by submitting to God and resisting the devil. As we obey this command found in James 4: 7, we can be confident that Satan will, indeed, flee.
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Copyright 2018 by Dr. MaryAnn Diorio. All Rights Reserved.
Disabled with cerebral palsy, eight-year-old Jeremiah Bentley faces a huge fear. But when Jake the Farmhand challenges him to do the thing he fears, Jeremiah wonders if he really can.
Will Jeremiah dare to conquer his fear, or will he allow his fear to conquer him?
Read this inspiring story to find out!
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