What to Do When Fear Takes Over - iBelieve Truth: A Devotional for Women - May 14, 2026
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
I finished my blueberry waffles as I waited for my phone to ring. I wanted to get this routine phone appointment over with so I could get on with my plans for the day. Then the phone rang, and my day was turned upside down with the news I received, not earth-shattering, but enough to shake me up.
My first response was tinged with trembling as my brain scrambled to fix things. I could make a few changes, but the rest was in God's hands. Of course, it always is.
Have you ever experienced one of those days when life is great until that phone call or that appointment with the doctor, lawyer, or financial planner? That's when you feel your world coming apart at the seams.
You might respond much like I did, with feelings of alarm and trepidation, and honestly, that's natural. We're not supernatural; we still feel the raw emotion of fear. That doesn't make us any less Christian.
It's quite normal for us to experience fear, or God wouldn't have had to tell us not to fear multiple times in the Bible.
How do we move forward in faith in those days when fear crept in on us and shook us up? Let's go to God's Word to discover what we should do.
As we unpack our focal verse, we discover right away that fear doesn't come from God. It is stirred up by the flesh or our enemy, Satan. When the enemy creates fear in a believer's life, he knows it interferes with our faith.
Fear says, "I don't think I can do this." It paralyzes us, but faith will say, "It will be difficult, but I can do this with God's help."
Fear asks, "What will I do now?" Faith declares, "I will trust God." Do you see why the enemy works so hard to create fearful thoughts? He is a liar, even from the beginning in the Garden of Eden, and he lies about fear.
My rescue from fear came before that phone call, and I didn't even know I needed it. I want to tell you I have incredible times of prayer every morning, but that morning it was an amazing time of prayer, unrushed and uninterrupted. That gave me a foundation for what I had to face.
We never know what is around the next corner or what will happen in the next moment. That's why we need to carve out time for fervent prayer every morning and evening.
Our verse tells us that God gives us three things that guard us from falling into the pit of fear. First, He gives us power. He has placed the Holy Spirit within us. He's there with you right now. When we consider the awesome power living within us that encourages us, we must rely on the power of the Spirit, not on ourselves.
Next, He showers us with love, and John tells us that
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. 1 John 4:18 NKJV
Our heavenly Father loves us with such a perfect love that we have no reason to fear. This love resulted in Jesus dying for us, sparing us from a Christless eternity.
We struggle to grasp the depths of a love like that. We must trust His Word and His love for us.
Finally, God gives us a sound mind. The Holy Spirit gives us power, but He also gives us fruit, such as love, peace, and joy. When we are saturated in His peace, one that transcends all understanding, we will have stable minds and hearts.
What causes your heart to tremble? How can you rely on God's gifts of power, love, and a sound mind to help you overcome that fear?
Can you carve out more time to spend with your heavenly Father this week? We can't turn off the fear and turn on the faith, but we can rely on the wisdom of today's Scripture to help us send fear out the door.
Heavenly Father, thank You for power, love, and a sound mind. Help me trust You more and protect my mind from fearful thoughts. I know You have a plan for all things. Amen.
Photo credit: ©Unsplash/Natalia Figueredo
Carolyn Dale Newell is a best-selling author and certified speaker. She knows the bitter taste of suffering from blindness to chronic pain. Her passion is to encourage women to keep their eyes on Jesus and not their circumstances in her devotional, Embers of Endurance: Rising Above Chronic Pain and Illness. You can connect with Carolyn on her website and her women’s ministry group on Facebook.
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If you've been feeling tired, overwhelmed, depleted, or just quietly wondering where God is in the middle of a very full life — this episode is for you. And honestly? It might be for me too, because I'm recording this in one of those seasons myself.
Today we're doing something a little different. Instead of going deep in a passage, we're talking about what to do when deep feels like too much — when you need less, not more. Specifically, I'm walking you through one of my favorite practices for weary seasons: handwriting scripture.
Not typing it. Not scrolling past it. Actually writing it out, slowly, in your own hand — because something happens in your brain when you do that. The words land differently. They go deeper. And over time, they become part of that personal library of God's voice that the Holy Spirit can pull from when you need it most. That's what Psalm 119:11 means when it says I have hidden your word in my heart — it's scripture moving into your long-term memory, where it lives and stays even when you haven't opened your Bible in weeks.
I'm sharing the five verses I wrote out for myself today — and why each one hit me fresh even though I've known some of them for years. This episode is part of our How to Study the Bible Podcast, a show that brings life back to reading the Bible and helps you understand even the hardest parts of Scripture. If this episode helps you know and love God more, be sure to follow the How to Study the Bible Podcast on Apple or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
