If you keep letting fear rule your life, you are never going to feel good about yourself. At some point, you have to face your fear and come out of the bondage in which it has held you.

Sometimes you don't even know exactly how you got into that bondage. All you know is that you are afraid. Oftentimes it relates to things which happened to you in your past. But God can bring you out of that fear if you will only trust Him.

Facing My Pain
Let me share with you an example of this happening in my life. My daughter and I had eaten out midday because I had an appointment in the afternoon. Later when we were out, I was thirsty and just wanted some ice water.

Every now and then I will order a soda, but not very often because I like water. Sometimes we go into McDonald's just for water. Since we spend a lot of money at McDonald's on coffee and fast-food, we feel it's fine to do that. Actually, we don't go. We usually send Dave because he doesn't mind.

I don't know about you, but I have always felt funny going into a restaurant and asking, "May I use your bathroom?" or "May I have four cups of water?" especially if I'm not eating there. I assume they will think I'm really stupid to ask for water without buying anything.

Because I made the decision to do things afraid no matter how I felt, I decided to not be held in bondage anymore. I'm a grown woman. If I want to go to McDonald's to get a cup of water, I ought to be able to. If people don't like it, they can think what they want. Their reaction won't bother me because I have decided to do it.

I got up my nerve and opened the door to McDonald's. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, "How will they know I just came in for some water. Maybe they'll think I've been eating here all along and just came up to the counter to ask for some water."

But as soon as I walked through the door, the lady at the counter looked directly at me. Then I thought to myself, "That blew that. Now she knows I'm coming in fresh from the outside just for water."

So do you know what I did? I turned my body and started to walk toward the bathroom. I had decided to stay in the bathroom a while, then come out to get my water later. Maybe by then a different person would be at the counter.

Halfway down the hall I thought, "What are you doing? Go out there and get your water!" I turned around, marched down the hall, up to the counter and said, "I would like two cups of water, please, with lots of ice."

After the lady handed them to me, I turned around and walked out the same doors I had come in. I was so proud of myself. I was an overcomer. I had asked for a cup of water at McDonald's!

Really though, it wasn't the idea of asking for a cup of water that I was struggling with. It was that old pain from way back that kept saying, "What if they get mad? Then what are you going to do?"

But regardless of what I thought or how I felt, I had decided to go back through that doorway of pain.

I may have had a little fear and a little trembling. I may have felt my heart beating a little faster than normal. But the Bible doesn't say, "Tremble not." It doesn't say, "Sweat not." It just says, "Fear not!" So, charge, I went back through the doorway.

Source: Do It Afraid! by Joyce Meyer
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers