“When I am afraid, I will trust in you.” Psalm 56:3
Chandler and I were talking the other day about doing something that’s hard to do. I forget exactly what it was, now, but I wrote down what he said, because it was one of those priceless things that kids say: “You have to get over your afraid.”
Turning “afraid” into a noun is something an eleven-year-old gets to do, and in some ways it captures the truth better than the word he wanted, which would have been “fear.”
I’ve thought a lot about getting over my fear, but I’ve never thought about getting over my afraid. Come to think of it, getting over my “afraid” makes a lot of sense.
Fear is a human emotion. It is a dark cloud or a freezing hesitation or a claustrophobic entrapment. It may or may not be attached to what’s actually happening.
Fear can get you all by itself, but your “afraid” has to have an antecedent. You’re afraid of something. Your fear can be vague, but your “afraid” is specific, and it helps to identify what it is. You are afraid of what?
Often when we face into what we’re really afraid of we discover
1) it isn’t as overwhelming as we thought,
2) it’s just in our head,
3) we can actually find something to do about it—take manageable steps toward a solution.
Start with what you’re afraid of, compare that to the Lord in your life, and do something about it. I’m going to suggest this for all of us: Take Chandler’s advice and get over your “afraid!”
John Fischer The Catch 
Identifying what you are afraid of takes more humility and honesty than being blind by fear. Dealing with the specifics can remove the pride that gave place to fear that controls. We have all been there!
There was a young woman I knew who was afraid of crowds, yet she told Bible stories in children’s ministry and it was obvious the Holy Spirit was with her. She had to quit because she could not conquer her fear. I told her what I have written below, but she was too depressed to believe me. I have lost touch with her.
A radio talk show had a guest on who had suffered from all kinds of fears. Yet no professionals could help him. They could give him drugs but he refused to take them after a while. Then he researched on the internet because he thought there must be help out there somewhere. He discovered that fear has it’s root in four areas….fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of losing control and fear of death. He then isolated which fear was his problem and had overcome it himself.
He pointed out that fear of water has its root in fear of death, fear of heights also has fear of death, hoarders fear losing control, my daughter in law picks up her newborn everytime it peeps, she is afraid of being a bad mother or fear of failure.
Chandler is right we need to get over our afraid.
Never thought of it that way before. What a helpful distinction. You can hear David both dealing with his fear and getting over his afraid in Psalm 118:5-6 (NIV84): In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Tell Chandler “Thanks!” for a good word.