He watched for my reaction as he slipped the note across the counter. All large bills and he had a gun. That’s what the note said.

I opened the top drawer and stuffed cash into the bag. I handed it over and he was gone–just like that.

I yelled for someone to lock the bank doors. Still in shock, when the police arrived I spat out what my brain could retrieve as someone counted out my teller drawer.

Then they said I could go home–but I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want to walk out of that building.

I wanted to keep the doors locked and stay hidden because if I left I’d have to walk outside and they didn’t catch him yet and I knew what he looked like. Plus, I’d have to stop for gas.

I was young and nieve and never experienced that kind of fear–the kind that kept me from moving.

Thankfully these traumatic events don’t happen to us every day, but there are other kinds of fears that hold us back.

Like the fear of getting it wrong and letting people down.

How many breakthroughs, dreams, and exciting adventures await in the wings of our lives because we’re too afraid to move forward?

Maybe we’re too afraid to even begin.

Fears can be personal or communal. We fear personal threats like being robbed or a communal threat like lurking diseases we cannot see.

Even when fear seems to take center stage, it’s not the star of the show.

God is in control.

And we can learn from those who have faced fear down and stood back up.

I know a woman who stepped out in fear and it changed her life. Although we don’t know her name many of us know her story.

A Woman Who Did It Afraid

Bleeding for twelve years straight, she was desperate for a cure. Out of money and options–Scripture tells us the help she sought didn’t make her better, it made her worse.

This continual bleeding not only impacted her physically, but emotionally, financially, culturally, and relationally.

Leviticus 15:19-25 tells us during a woman’s menstrual period she was considered unclean and anyone who touched her would also be unclean.

She was thought to be a younger woman by the way Jesus addresses her. If so, her hopes for marriage and children would have long been dashed.

Worse then the condition itself was probably the fear she would never be free of it.

It’s hard to find hope when you think you’re out of options–but with God, you’re never out of options.

Reaching for Hope in Spite of Her Fear

Hope was revived when she heard about Jesus.

Imagine yourself as her for a moment, wedging yourself into the crowd, working your way through to get to Jesus.

You’re behind Him now and you reach out and touch His garment because by faith you know even touching His clothing will heal you.

Immediately your years of suffering are over. You don’t even need to check, you just know.

Imagine the feeling of not only being healed but experiencing a new beginning.

Since she was considered unclean, and anyone she touched would be considered unclean, she didn’t approach Jesus face–to–face but from behind.

She was doing something culturally unacceptable. Would she make Jesus unclean by touching even His garment?

Culture would have said yes but her faith said no. If Jesus could instantly heal her, she would be made clean.

Maybe she hoped to just reach out, get healed, and disappear back into the crowd. But we’re never invisible to God.

As she touched His garment Jesus felt power go out from Him. He asked who touched Him.

Well, many touched Him. Scripture tells us the crowd pressed in and even the disciples wondered why Jesus would ask such a question.

But Jesus knew this touch was different.

“But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.  He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.'” Mark 5:32-34

She told Him the whole truth and she did it afraid. I wish I could have heard her trembling voice declaring her testimony of healing.

She told of things Jesus already knew, but the crowd didn’t know and now they did.

It’s interesting to me how the woman touched Jesus’s garment and was instantly healed. She was the one doing the reaching and touching and was instantly touched by God’s power.

She didn’t have to face Him and ask for help–she reached out for hope and was healed through her faith.

To God this woman’s life mattered, her faith mattered, her story mattered–and He wanted her to tell about it.

Her fear did not keep her from seeking out Jesus that day. If it had she would have not only missed life-changing healing but an opportunity to glorify God in the midst of a crowd.

When she fell at Jesus’s feet trembling in fear, her healing had already happened. I wonder if the enemy whispered she was in trouble, that she wasn’t worthy to be healed, that she really wasn’t healed.

But she didn’t listen. She was too busy overcoming by the word of her testimony. What if fear made her run? After all, she already received what she came for.

If she ran she would have missed one of the sweetest parts of the story–the part where Jesus tells her to go in peace and be free. That’s worth sticking around for.

We have a choice when it comes to fear–we can live in it or we can flip the script, revoke its power, and allow it to move us.

That woman walked out of her house that day seeking Jesus. Her faith was more powerful than her fear and that made her free.

Fear Wants to Hold Us Back

Fear tells us we can’t move forward but that’s not true.

There are two ways to look at fear:

• We can bow down to it

OR

• We can stand up to it

If the woman with the issue of blood had bowed down to her fear we wouldn’t be reading about her in Mark 5.

Fear didn’t paralyze her or keep her from moving forward, and one thing is for sure, she didn’t end her day in fear she ended it in victory.

What are you afraid of, friend?

Does fear paralyze you from beginning something new? Taking that first step?

Perhaps fear is keeping you from finishing what you’ve started.

Maybe you, like many, are experiencing fear of illness. Especially now, as the world focuses on a spreading virus.

During this time of taking precautions, we cannot gather in crowds like the one who sought Jesus, but we don’t have to.

Jesus still meets us right where we are.

Fear will tell you it has power, but it doesn’t have power over you unless you let it.

Revoke the power of fear and rebuke it in the name of Jesus.

Move past fear and find your victory in Jesus waiting on the other side.

Even if you’re feeling alone, friend, know you are not alone. God is with you and the power of prayer is mighty and avails much.

We are in this thing called life together and it can be messy but it is always worth living in Him.

I’m praying for you and together our prayers through faith can move mountains. Grab hold of the hem of His garment and be free.

Fear Fighting Scriptures

If you’re fighting fear, grab my free Fear Fighting scripture verses to meditate on and hide in your heart.

Then when fear comes knocking, unleash the Word of Truth and watch fear run for the hills.