Fear can be crippling.

As a child, while walking to school, I often encountered packs of dogs prowling the streets of my city. I would jump onto parked cars to escape them and stay there, stuck, until a passing motorist would witness my plight and come to the rescue.

It took years for me to accept dog owners’ insistence that their particular dog doesn’t bite.

Fear definitely crippled me from years of enjoyment of the loyal companionship that a dog could have brought into my childhood. How much more hapless the “spirit of fear” that blankets our decisions, experiences, and events!

While in college, I had the opportunity to date someone who has now become the envy of the entertainment world — not only for his acting talent, but also in his longstanding marital relationship. Fear, masquerading as timidity, kept me from turning the “opportunity to have dated” this gallant gentleman into the “experience of having dated” him, despite his lighthearted, friendly, yet persistent interest.

Fear does not come from God. The testimony found in today’s verse exonerates God from shackling our hopes, dreams, and aspirations in fear. I now choose to believe Him and walk in faith; I no longer walk in fear.