Running head: UNTIE THE KNOTS OF YOUR HEART
Keenan Crowley
Liberty University
Untie the Fear Knots of Your Heart
4MAT Book Review
Running head: Untie the Fear Knots 2
Summary
“Everyone is afraid of something and how those people handle that fear is completely up
to the person handling it. “Untie the Fear Knots” (Nichols, 2010) is a book of information,
prayer, and workouts that will aid all readers in dominating their fears. Each chapter ends in with
a hands-on application that gives the reader exercises to understand their his or her fear, and
prayerful reflection that gives sScripture to the reader to use to show God’s answer to fear and to
support the person to conquer the fear they are he or she is having,. iIt also finishes the chapters
with an individual evaluation that will get the reader to think and apply what they have he or she
has just read. In the first chapter, Nichols (2010) shows the reader that the first step is to
understand that fear will approach everybody. In those people’s lives, fear is not the real issue,
but the real issue is what we do with it. Do we let it “tie in a knot” within us or do we let faith
overcome the fear we are dealing with? Chapter two starts by displaying there are no fearless
heroes, but people who have faced their fears and conquered it them. In this chapter, Nichols
(2010) also explains the two kinds of fears we have, manipulating fear and motivating fear.
Nichols (2010) then uses chapter three to show one of the best utensils fear must use on us.
OURSELVES! We do it to ourselves. In this chapter, Nichols (2010) presents the Circle of
Concern and the Circle of Control. The Circle of Concern are the things that we care about like
our job, family, friends, and things important to us, and the Circle of Control is what we can
really control. He shows that while we spend most of the time stressing about the Circle of
Concern, we need to look at what we can control and stop fearing about the things we can’t
cannot. In this chapter Nichols (2010) shows how our mind can aid fear distort our thinking of
the incident we are dealing with. He shows that while we spend most of the time stressing about
the Circle of Concern, we need to look at what we can control and stop fearing about the things
Running head: Untie the Fear Knots 3
we can’t cannot. Chapter 4 shows how fear can work on our other mental health and emotions
and at times, could be the reason why some of the emotions we are dealing with, like depression
and sadness, could be knotted to a fear that we have. Chapter 5 shows that fear can damage our
physical body bodies. The couple of chapter’s shows how win over fear. Chapters 6 & and 7
show the us ways to loosen fear that can have on a person by trusting in God faithfulness.
Having faith overcomes fear. God is with us through everything, even through the fearful
circumstances and if you focus on Him, hHe will get you through the fear. Chapter 8 focuses on
confidence for a better tomorrow. Having God produces hope that gives stamina to the person
and information that whatever you are going through, He is in control and even death is not the
end for us. The last chapter deals with the love of God and He wants the best for us. In the end,
this book shows that faith conquers fear, hope gives the endurance necessary to withstand fear,
and love tosses out the remnants of any fear that is left (Nichols, 2010, p. 130).
Concrete rResponses
This book really taught me about conquering my fear, and how to handle it, and how to
out put God in front of it. Last year, to come on on part time on yYoung lLife staff, I have had to
raise $10,000 dollars and I had no idea how to do it. I wasn’t not a sales person nor was a I
confident in myself to do the task. I was already talking myself out of doing it and I was letting
other people tell me that I couldn’t not do it. All I knew how to do was make phone calls and
knew people who loved me and loved Jesus. I spent a lot of time praying to gGod and asking
hHim for a whole lot of wisdom. I prayed before every phone call, and I prayed before every
meeting. I would try and be clear and specific when talking to God. I ask hHim to take away
my fear and I would ask hHim to stir in people hearts when I asked them to support me. I would
References
Application
I believe this is a great tool to use. This book has a lot of great tools you can use with
your family and friends. You can keep using forever in every relationship you have now.
Running head: Untie the Fear Knots 4
say when I am afraid, I learned that I always turned to God and try to give it to God, so hHe can
handle it. In this sitauion situation, hHe did. God provided me with the money and it was
awesome.
Reflection
The book went over some physical and mental illnesses that fear can trigger. What I want
to know is how do we know if this is a physical or mental ailment or is it something that is
formed by fear. While this book will be great with believers, what about non-believers that who
may come to us for help? Would someone who doesn’t not believe in God rely on this book?
Just as some feelings can be tangled to having certain fears in your life, phobias come from
anxiety. Can this book be used to assistance people with phobias? As Christians, we are
supposed to evangelize to others. While it may take time for a person to accept Christ, they he or
she may need counseling prior to truly having faith in God. Are there certain techniques or ways
to improve our faith when going through fearful events?
Running head: Untie the Fear Knots 5
Nichols, Ken K. (2010). Untie the Ffear Kknots…of Yyour Hheart. Lynchburg, VA: Liberty
University Press.
Keenan - overall you seem to have a solid grasp of what Nichols is addressing in his book, as well
as meaningful and practical thoughts on the concepts. Would like to see more depth on the
Application section (should be at least 200 words). There are a number of grammatical and
formatting things to note (so be sure to proofread your paper), but a nice review.
CriteriaPoints PossiblePoints Earned
Book Summary3028.5
Reflection 25 23
Concrete Response2523
Application 25 20
Writing/Grammar 25 19
APA Formatting2017
Points Available = 150Points Earned = 130.5
