Faith Focused Prayers

Fear Is Faith In The Wrong Thing: Reset Your Mind

• Justice Mosley • Season 3 • Episode 1

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What if the fear that feels protective is actually steering your life? In this episode we open up about the quiet ways anxiety, judgment, and “what if” thinking shaped our choices, then walk through Scripture to make a real mind shift—one that trades control for trust and hesitation for obedience. This is a raw, faith-forward journey through 2 Timothy 1:7, Philippians 4, Psalm 56, and Psalm 34, paired with honest stories of postpartum struggle, withheld testimony, and the spiritual warfare we often imagine instead of the covering God actually promises.

Together, we explore how fear often disguises itself as wisdom and how the Bible calls us to a different inheritance: power, love, and a sound mind. We break down the practice of praying about everything, thanking God for what He’s already done, and guarding our thoughts with what is true, pure, and lovely. You’ll hear how naming God by His covenant names—Jehovah Jireh, Rapha, Nissi, and Gibbor—reframed trials as places where His character is revealed. We also tackle the big reframing idea: fear is faith pointed the wrong way. Instead of building belief around worst-case scenarios, we learn to ask where God’s best might break in.

This conversation is for anyone stuck between calling and caution. If you’ve delayed sharing your story, avoided your next step, or prayed but still felt paralyzed, you’ll find practical tools: questions that stop a spiral, promises that steady your heart, and a closing prayer for deliverance, courage, and renewed obedience. We’re choosing to show up, speak up, and stand on what God has already said—believing He is with us wherever we go and that peace will guard our hearts and minds.

If this resonates, follow the show, share it with someone who needs courage today, and leave a review with the one fear you’re laying down. Your voice might be the testimony someone else is waiting for.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello, beautiful people. Welcome back to Faith Focused Prayers where we allow God to change and transform us into who He has called and created us to be. I want to talk about something very personal to me today, and I feel like it's probably something a lot of people are struggling with. Actually, I know it is because in the Bible this is constantly something we see God address. And so today I wanted to talk about fear. It wasn't until recently that I realized how much fear actually controlled my life and how many things in my life I was doing out of fear. I was disobeying God out of fear. I missed opportunities out of fear. I would even read the Bible to my son out of fear, read him Psalms 91 because for some reason I felt like if I didn't read it, something bad could happen to him. And that's not the stance that we're supposed to have when we're reading the Bible. We're supposed to read it in faith, read it through the promises of God, not out of fear. The fear I felt was so deep and so strong that it actually impacted every area of my life. When I look back at all the things that I didn't do that I should have done, that God told me to do, the thing that kept me from stepping out, and the thing that kept me from obedience was fear. Fear of what other people would say, fear of how it would look, fear of failure, fear of success. So many different areas of fear, but in the end, that's what it was all rooted in. And it wasn't until my pastor actually came to my home and was telling me what says the Lord, because I'm in postpartum, two months postpartum, and she was telling me what God was saying. And so after she left, it provoked me to you know go and pray, and that's when God revealed to me everything you're doing is out of fear. And so we always hear people say, faith over fear, but how do you actually get to that point? How do you actually make that switch? And I feel like that's something that you have to make in your mind before you can see it manifest in your life. And fear is something that so many people, even in the Bible, struggle with because we've constantly seen God tell them, Joshua, for example, you know, to not be afraid. And we're gonna go through some of the scriptures today and the different types of fears that were pointed out in scripture and what people were afraid of, and hopefully this helps you the way that it has helped me to make that mind switch and to decide, okay, you know what? Fear is not from God, fear is not something God has given us, and no longer do I want to allow fear to control my life because what am I truly afraid of? If God be for you and God be with you, who can stand against you? So let's go to 2 Timothy 1 and 7, and it says, for God has not given us a spirit of timidity or fear, but of power, love, and discipline, or some uh translations say of sound mind. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and of a sound mind. This fear, I feel like it's talking about us not being afraid to tell others about the Lord, because in the next verse you see Paul telling him, Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me, his prisoner, but join me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God. He's telling him, Timothy, don't be afraid to share the good news of the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, or even the testimony of me and the things that I've been through. And so many times I can say that I am definitely guilty of that, of not sharing my testimony out of fear. I had one of the craziest pregnancies ever, and I know God wanted me to be documenting and wanted me to be posting and sharing my experience to help other people who were going through it. But I was so afraid of the spiritual warfare because I'm like things are very spiritual, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, and I don't like to share things until I get through it because for some reason I feel like if I share while I'm in it, the spiritual warfare is gonna be heavier. But no, if God wants me to share, that means I'm protected, that means I'm covered. It's when I'm in disobedience that the enemy has access to me, and the enemy has the legal right to send more things my way, and now I'm just seeing that. I'm seeing that now after the season has already passed, or after I've already gone through it, after I've already made it to the other side. Thank the Lord for his faithfulness and his protection and his grace and his mercy, and he knew that I was gonna mess up, anyways. But I'm just seeing how fear has kept me from telling people about God's faithfulness, telling people about his word, telling people about my life and my experience and my testimony, and ultimately it has kept me from helping other people out of fear. That's just not God's will for my life or for other people's lives because once we're in Christ, we are seated in heavenly places. We have all power and authority to trample over serpents and scorpions at the name of Jesus. So many things can happen, and so many things can change, and there is no other name which man can be saved. There is no greater name than the name of Jesus, and actually walking in that and believing that is a shift that my mind needed to have because, like I said, this fear of warfare, this fear of judgment, this fear of people talking, viewing me in unpleasant lights, I guess, when really it was out of my control. I don't know, the sphere of judgment. All of these things are things that have kept me from sharing my life and my testimony that has been so crazy and so dramatic, but it was all for a purpose, and God wanted to get glory out of it, and I withheld that glory by keeping my mouth shut and not sharing my story. Next is Philippians 4 and 6. Don't worry about anything, instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all he has done. But this is talking about fear to the point of worry, stress, anxiety. Instead, we have to tell God what we need, we have to thank him for what he's done, and I can say I'm very guilty of that. I'm very guilty of worrying about tomorrow. The Bible tells us do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow worries about itself. It has enough problems for today. You have enough problems for today that you don't have to worry about tomorrow. And I can say I'm so guilty of the anxiety of worrying about tomorrow and next week and down the line and what's gonna happen. And that's just telling God, I don't trust you to take care of me because you have a fear that he's gonna allow something bad to happen to you. And I was talking to one of my sisters in Christ about fear, and she said, Is God that wicked? Do you serve a wicked God that you could read Psalms 91 a promise of protection, saying that as long as I'm in his presence, I'm protected? Would your God allow something bad to happen to you? Is he that wicked that he would not stand on his word? And no, he's not. We don't serve a wicked God. He is just and right and merciful and loving and kind and perfect. And so, why would he give us these scriptures to pray and these prayers to pray to not even listen and um honor them? He's not that kind of father, he's not that kind of God, he's this kind of God where you take one step, he takes another step. Uh he's looking for relationship, and he's looking for trust, and he's looking for faith and closeness and obedience, and I'm learning that, and it's just allowing my mind to make that switch and to actually believe the things that the word says. And then after you go to verse 6, you go to verse 7, and it says, Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. It's peace, his peace will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Think on whatever is true, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely. You have to be able to turn off the lies of the enemy, turn off the doubt within yourself, set your mind on the good, set your mind on gratitude, set your mind on Jesus. A lot of times when you're in the midst of fear, what if this happens? What if that happens? What if this happens? You have to say, Stop. Has God failed me yet? Stop, has he left me yet? Has he ever forsaken me? What does his word say? And is he a liar? Is his word true or is it not true? When he said, I will never leave you or forsake you. Is that a true or false statement? And has God ever done that before? A lot of times fear is like a false reality. You're thinking about what could happen, what might happen, but it hasn't happened yet. Or even the bad things that have happened. What was the purpose of it? Being able to look at the bigger picture. That's something I've been able to see now that I'm taking a step back and releasing the fear in my life. I'm able to say, okay, what was the bigger picture of it? Because I can say I've had a crazy life, a crazy testimony. And for me, the fear is always like, God's not done writing my testimony. He's gonna make me go through something else. And when I think about that, nothing that I have been through has been in vain. Nothing that I have been through has made me weak. It's made me stronger, it's made me closer to him, it's shown his faithfulness, it's allowed me to see him in a different light, to see him in a different way, to see him as Jehovah Jira, my provider, Jehovah Rapha, my healer, Jehovah Nisi, Jehovah Gabor, the God who fights on my behalf, all these different characteristics of God. And if you don't go through things and allow him to reveal himself in a deeper way, then how do you ever expect to grow more intimacy and more relationship with him? How do you get a chance to experience him as father if you don't go through something that requires him to be your father? How do you get a chance to experience him as savior if you don't go through something where you need a savior? You have to go through all these different things in life so that God can show himself in different ways. And in the end, he is the only thing that matters. He is the only one that truly matters. He is faithful and he is perfect. And you just have to continue to remind yourself of those things. Remind yourself on what is good and what is lovely and what is pure. And that is God. That is Jesus. When I was in high school, I went to therapy and I struggled with a lot of insecurity and negative self-talk. And what she would have me do is every time I thought something negative about myself, she would make me speak two positive things about myself. And it's the same thing when you hear fear creeping into your mind and the lies of the enemy whispering into your ear something that is not true, you have to speak with your mouth the word of God. Speak with your mouth what the got what God says and prove the enemy to be a liar, the liar that he is. Psalms 56, verse 3 and 4. Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, I will praise his word. In God, I have put my trust, I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? And then when you go to verse 11, it says, In God, I have put my trust, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? And I love that because it says, What can flesh do to me? What can man to what can man do to me? And when I read that, I asked myself, what are you afraid of? Truly, what are you afraid of? What can flesh do to you when you have power over your flesh? What can man do to you when you are rooted and seated and adopted in the family of God? Nobody can do to you what God has not already seen and made provision for, what God has already allowed. And the Bible talks about all things work together for the good of those who are in Christ Jesus. So, yes, a bad situation can happen to you. Yes, bad things can happen, but God has a way of turning that bad thing and making it work for your good. And what is the good for his glory, for his testimony, for your strength, for your purifying, for your edifying. God is chiseling us all. He is the potter and we are the clay, and he is molding us into something beautiful. And what that is, is us looking more like him. We were made in his image and his likeness. I heard someone say that fear is faith in the wrong thing, faith in the wrong direction. And that was so profound to me because when I hear fear over faith, I often pray, God, give me more faith, give me more faith, give me more faith. And all it was doing was giving me more faith, but my faith was going in the wrong direction. My faith was going towards what could happen in a bad way. Instead of thinking about what's the best that can happen, I was thinking what's the worst that can happen. And so I kept praying for faith, and I had faith. I just was putting my faith in the wrong place, and I feel like many of us are guilty of that. And once my mind was able to think of it that way, I was able to shift and say, Okay, I'm no longer gonna put my faith in what can go wrong, but instead, I'm gonna try and put my faith in what can go right. What can God do? How can God show his hand? The Bible even talks about with faith, nothing is impossible for you. You have to believe for the things that you're actually praying about. You have to believe that God actually wants to bless you. You have to believe that God is who he says he is, and you have to believe that you are who God says you are. That's something I'm working on. But these are things that have helped me to make the mind shift into the right direction of no longer allowing fear control my life. Psalm 34 and 4 says, I've sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. And that is the prayer that I'm praying for myself, and that is the prayer that I'm praying for you. That we seek the Lord and He delivers you from all your fears, everything that you are afraid of, everything that is holding you back, everything that is keeping you stagnant, everything that is keeping you bound. I pray that the Lord delivers you from them all, delivers you from all of your fears, all of your guilt, all of your shame, everything that is keeping you from living up to your full potential in Christ Jesus. Psalm 34. The full chapter is good. Talking about the Lord, a provider, and the one who rescues me. It says, I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth, my soul will make its boast in the Lord, the humble will hear it and rejoice. Exalt the Lord with me, and let's exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me and rescued me from all my fears. They looked to him and were radiant, and their faces will never be ashamed. This wretched man cried out, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and rescues them. Taste and see the Lord is good. How blessed is a man who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him, there is no lack of anything. The young lions do without and suffer hunger, but they who seek the Lord will not lack any good thing. Come, you children, listen to me. I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is a person who desires life and loves length of days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and keep your lips from speaking deceit. Turn from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. Those eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, and his ears are toward the cry, his ears are toward their cry for help. The face of the Lord is against evildoers to eliminate the memory of them from the earth. The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears and rescues them from all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. The afflictions of the righteous are many, but the Lord rescues him from them all. He protects all his bones, not one of them is broken. Evil will bring death to the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will suffer for their guilt. The Lord redeems the soul of his servants, and none of those who take refuge in him will suffer for their guilt. That's a good read. So I asked the question again: what are you afraid of? Are you afraid of failure? And if the answer is yes, then I want to remind you that the only time you fail is when you won't try. Every other time is not truly failure. You're learning something, you're growing, you're evolving, you're gaining strength, you're gaining wisdom, you're gaining experience, you're gaining a testimony. Are you afraid of judgment? And when I realized that I was afraid of judgment, I had to look at myself and say, okay, why am I afraid of judgment? Why do I feel like people will judge me? And a lot of times the answer was because I was judging others. I judge other people, so I feel like they would judge me. Another reason, insecurity of being misunderstood. And I had to say, so what? So what if people don't understand you? Some people will and some people won't, and that's just how life goes. So what? You're so afraid of somebody misunderstanding you that you're gonna not do the will of God, you're not gonna obey him, you're not gonna do the things that he has called you to do because of fear of being misunderstood. Who cares if they judge you? Um, fear of success, and then messing it up and ruining it. And again, I had to tell myself, so what? How many people how does that happen to? How many people have reached success, whatever success meant in their mind, and then they messed up and lost it? And what do they have to do? Humble themselves and start over and rebuild again. Just because you messed something up doesn't mean that's the end of your life. That doesn't mean that you can never be blessed again or nothing good will ever come your way. You learn from your mistakes, you repent and you rebuild. You live, you learn, you trust, and you try again. And I had to ask myself these questions. Has God ever left you? No. Has he ever lied to you? No. Has he ever let you down? No. Has have you been disappointed in the way things turned out? Yes. Have you wanted something and maybe it didn't go your way or it didn't look or didn't happen the way that you want it to happen? Yes. But when you look back on that thing, how often do we say, thank God he didn't give me what I prayed for? Or thank God he didn't give me what I thought I wanted. God knows what you need and he gives you what you need. Fear of transparency, and I wrote this down, it says, be ashamed of not changing, not growing, not loving, not what you've been through, not your testimony. A lot of times there's things I want to share, but I feel like if I'm gonna share, then I want to be transparent. I don't like giving half truths, I don't like lying, I don't like giving a false image of a part of me that's not really me. You know, so if I'm gonna put myself out there, then I want to be fully transparent, but then sometimes there's parts of you that you're ashamed of or mistakes you made or things you will allow to happen that you don't really want to be transparent about. And so because I don't like to give half truths, I would rather just not show up. I'd rather just allow people to think whatever they're gonna think. I just won't touch on it, I just won't talk about it unless I can be fully transparent. And I I don't like that because there's nothing to be ashamed of. The only You should be ashamed of is not changing, not growing, not loving. You should not be ashamed of what you've been through, and you should not be ashamed of your trust. Isaiah 41 and 10, it says, Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. That is a promise of God. He's promising. Don't be afraid, I'm with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you. Joshua 1 and 9. Have I not commanded you, be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid nor be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And that's one thing you have to constantly remind yourself of. When you're walking by faith, not by sight. You don't know how it's going to look. You don't know what the outcome is going to be. You don't know how people are going to perceive it. You don't know what the other side brings. You just have to keep reminding yourself that God says, for I am with you. Do not be afraid. Be strong and of good courage. Do not be dismayed. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And I constantly pray that prayer, God, I need you with me. I need you to do life with me. I need you to be holding my hand every step of the way. I don't know what I'm doing. I've messed up so many times. I keep failing, not failing. Like we said, it's not failure. I keep misstepping. I keep making mistakes. I keep doing it wrong. But that's only because I have not allowed the Lord to direct my every path. And when He has directed my path, I allowed fear to cause me to be disobedient. I've allowed fear to overweigh what God has said, to outweigh the voice of God, the word of God, and I don't want that life for me anymore. And so I hope if any of this resonates with you, that you would go on a journey and see what you are afraid of. What areas in your life is fear controlling? What things is God telling you to step out on faith with that you have not done? And is fear the reason? And if it is, then you automatically know that that is not God. I got to the point where I felt like the enemy has too much access to me. I felt like I was being the quote unquote good Christian. You know, I do the things that I'm supposed to do, except this one area of my life I was disobedient and not showing up online, that's putting myself out there, that's sharing my testimony, that's filming, that's posting, and that's the biggest thing that God has asked of me that I continue to allow fear to control, to mess up, to manipulate. And that might be the other side of my blessing. I never know what door is gonna open. I never know what way I can help somebody and really change somebody's life. And I just had to repent and apologize, and I repent again, and I apologize to the Lord for allowing fear to keep me from being obedient and keep me from helping other people because that's also what I have done. I refuse to share my testimony and share my story out of fear when this is the very thing that God wanted to use to help somebody else, and because of me, that person may not have got the help the way God wanted to give it to them. I have had so many people come to me and say, Your pod has helped me. I've had people reach out to me, people I don't even know reach out to me and say how it's encouraged them and they wish I would come back because I've been gone for what almost a year. And I just thank you for sending that love and sending that encouragement, and I apologize that it has taken me so long to come back to this place and do the will of God for my life. But I thank you, and I hope, I pray that this is the last time that I'm apologizing for my disobedience concerning this area of my life. I pray that I can stay consistent. I pray that the Lord gives me strength. I pray that I have the discipline and the willpower and the mind of Christ to continue to know it's not about me, it's about other people, it's about helping other people, and it's what God wants from me. It's my sacrifice, it's my offering to him, to his people, to the body of sharing, sharing my voice, sharing my story. And so, Lord, let's just pray right now. Lord, we repent. We repent for allowing fear to settle in our hearts and in our mind. We repent for disobedience, we repent for coming into agreement with the lies of the enemy, lies that the enemy told us, so that we told ourselves. Lord, we repent for allowing fear to take root, causing stress, anxiety, depression, disobedience, addiction, unhealthy habits. Lord, we uproot it right now in the name of Jesus. We uproot fear of mind control, of deception, of lies, insecurity, stress, and anxiety and depression. We rebuke it right now in the name of Jesus. Lord, I pray for a new identity in you, God, that your word says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, for all things have passed away and he is made new, Father. So we decree and declare that we are new in you, Jesus. Lord, help us to renew our minds. Give us the mind of Christ, Father. Let your word be hidden in our hearts, that we would not sin against you, Lord. I pray for the mind of Christ. I pray for the renewal, God. Every person listening to this, God, that their minds would be renewed, God, that their hearts would be strengthened, Father, that their mind would be strengthened, Father. And I pray, God, that you would give us another chance to get it right. Whatever area in our life that we have been disobedient in because of fear, God, I pray that you would give us another opportunity, another chance to get it right, to get in your will, to be obedient to you, to help those, God, who need help, God. Help us to help ourselves, Father, that not only in our pursuit of helping others with that, it's also ministering to us, God. Lord, help us to become more like you, to see ourselves in you, Father, and to see you in us, Father. I ask that you would do life with us, that you would walk with us every moment, that we would be aware of your presence, that we would be aware of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, I ask that you would come and just direct my path, direct our path, order our steps, Father. Lord, I pray for strength and I pray for deliverance. I pray for love, God. That it says perfect love casts out fear. God, help us to really know what your love is, how your love feels, how your love uh looks, how love operates, God. And help us to do everything in love, God, to see the bigger picture, and to say, not my will, but your will be done, God, and to truly mean it, Father. That's the biggest thing that when we say these words and we make these declarations, and I pray these prayers, Father, but that I allow it to be genuine in my heart, God, that I want to be an obedient person, I want to be a loving person, I want to be a caring person, I want to be a selfless person, I want to be a humble person, I want to be a forgiving person. I want to be a person who puts others above myself. I want to be a person who obeys the word and the voice of God. Your word says obedience is better than sacrifice, Father. Help that to resonate in my heart and to have the willpower and the desire, the heart's desire to obey you no matter what. And God, I put my faith in Jesus. I put my faith in you, God. I shift my faith from fear to what can go wrong, to what can go right, Father, that you gave us power and authority. You said power in life and death is in our tongue, that if we speak a thing, if we ask in the name of Jesus, it shall be given unto us. And so we seal this prayer in the name of Jesus. Lord, I ask that you would protect every person listening to this. Protect me, God, protect my mind, keep me covered in the shadows of the Almighty, God, keep me protected, keep my mind covered, God, keep my mind regulated, Father. And that the enemy that I've seen before, I shall see no more, God. Give me the tools to fight, give me the confidence to fight, give me the confidence to persevere, to keep going, to keep pushing, to keep pressing. And despite of the situation, no matter what it looks like in front of us, God, just like the children going into the promised land so many times, things looked like it wasn't gonna work out. It looked like they weren't gonna prevail. It looked like they were gonna die. It looked like one thing, but you had a whole plan and a promise, God. Help me to see the plan and the promise. Help me to see your plan and your promise, God, to not be deceived by what is before me, to not be deceived by what my eyes can see, but that I would see things through the lens of God. I would see your word alive in my life, that I would see it and feel it deep in my heart, God. In the name of Jesus. Thank you, Lord, that you have given us the power to overcome fear, to be more than conquerors, to be victorious. And again, I ask, what are you afraid of? I encourage you to seek and to search and to ask yourself and to really be transparent with your own heart and say, What am I afraid of? And one by one, write those things down and put it up against the word of God and allow him to show you why you should not be afraid of that thing. Allow him to reveal to you how you have the power to overcome and what he says about you and what he encourages you to do. And so I thank you for listening. May God bless you and keep you and cover you and protect you. I love you. God loves you. Until next time. Bye.