Running head: REVIEW OF UNTIE THE FEAR OF YOUR
HEART
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Review of Untie The Fear of Your Heart By: Dr. Ken
Nichols Reviewed by Faaizah Shakoor Sweatte
Liberty University Online
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Summary
Fear is something we all face. We have fears about our health, environment, finances,
relationships, and safety for example. However, fear is not the problem, it is how we handle our
fears that pose the problem. Our response will either tighten the “fear knots” or refocus the
attention on God’s promises. Fear should not be denied or obsessed over; it should be used for
positive motivation because God allows us to experience fearful situations for a reason; it builds
character, and strength. By transforming fears into faith it loosens the hold fear has over us,
allowing us to enjoy our lives even when experiencing obstacles.
Fear has a major impact on our mental, physical and spiritual health. Fear affects our
emotions, distorting our thinking causing reasonable concerns to turn into irrational terror.
Since the mind and body share a relationship faith is very important. Scientific studies suggest a
link between high stress and low immunity. Fear is a major stress producer and when fear
becomes a long term response the immune system begins to break down causing people to
become more vulnerable to disease. The solution is to prepare for certain possibilities and pray
because God grants us serenity and is capable of changing things that we cannot. To endure and
conquer our fears we need faith, hope and love.
Faith can be thinking based on optimism, or on our relationship with God by trusting in
his plan and promises. God promises us peace and protection. When we adopt a confidence in
God’s faithfulness we can deal with troubles. While facing fear and situations those who trust
God learn to lean on his promises to be with us in all things, and realize that frightful situations
become learning experiences and we don’t have to worry because God is with us.
Believing is only half the battle; because faith does not eradicate fear. It gives us the
confidence we need to face the fears. Fear tempts us to quit, but faith supplies the courage to
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endure trials. According to the scripture (1 Peter NIV1:6-7), Trials come so your faith may be
proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed”. We
need to trust in his faithfulness because the difference between success and failure is simply
faith.
In addition to faith we need hope. Without hope, fear invades the soul and we give up and
become victims. Hope fills us with confident expectations for a better tomorrow and allows us to
look beyond now. One of the most frequent themes in the Bible is “Remember”! Fear has the
power to close our minds to all God has done for us. Forgetting God’s power in the past, we fear
for the future, and hope is diminished. Remembering God’s blessing and protection in the past is
essential in untying fear knots.
Lastly, we must remember God’s love for us. When we grasp God’s amazing love, we
realize we don’t have to be afraid of anyone or anything.
Concrete Response
While reading and reflecting, I was brought back to September when I was 12 years old. I
remember taking a drive with my family; that turned out to be, life changing and impacts my
fears today. We drove from Staten Island to Chicago for my Uncle’s funeral. I remember being
in and out of sleep, when I woke up to the sound of rain, sleet and hail and the car spinning
around over and over, what felt like forever. Because of the bad weather the Van hydroplaned,
my Aunt lost control, and we flipped over 8 times landing in a ditch. My mother, and 2 sisters
were thrown out of the vehicle. This was the day I lost my mother, and developed a huge fear of
driving, taking road trips and to this day I still fear sleeping in a vehicle.
I can personally relate to the fear and negative feelings the college student who lost her
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father to Cancer had in Chapter three. (Nichols,2010, p.40) The uncontrolled fear of early death
she experienced is the same strong fear I have when I get into a car everyday.
However, Untie the Fear Knots of Your Heart has taught me that I cannot dwell on what
happened in the past nor do I have control over the future. God has a plan for me, was with me
when the fatal accident occurred, and is with me today; so things will not always be great, but I
still must live an abundant fearless life.
Reflection
While reading Untie the Fear Knots of Your Heart, many questions came to mind in
response to the reading. As someone who often watches and is influenced by the media, I
thought it was great to read about how media saturation affects our fears. In fact, I actually share
the same issue as Linda did when she realized that the media’s negative reports were adding to
her stress. (Nichols, 2010, p.42) The solutions and distinctions between the Circle of Control
and Concern were helpful in balancing “fear knots” such as the horrible events and negativity
the media constantly exposes me to. However, with modern technology, social media and the
digital age, it is very difficult to stay away from hearing, reading, and seeing bad things that are
happening, may happen or previously happened. The author suggested managing the Circles of
Concern and Control. (Nichols,2010 p.43) However, today, the Circles of Concern grow because
every day there is a new outlet seeking to diminish the faith, hope and positivity established by
the plans we have developed to deal with the issues in our Circle of Control, thus making this
solution a bit faulty and difficult to apply in day to day life.
Additionally, with all that is going on in the world and the fast paced environment we
live in, it is difficult to slow down enough to remember what God has done to protect us
maintaining strong, consistent hope and faith; what can be done to constantly remind us of
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remembering what God has done.
Application
Untie the Fear Knots of Your Heart has offered extremely useful information, solutions
and guidance to conquering “fear knots”. In my life and personally, I am no longer going to
allow fear to distort my thoughts and turn small things or the potential for obstacles to take over
my mental, physical and spiritual life. I am going to reflect and remind myself through prayer,
scriptures and trusting in God. That everything will work out in my favor as God wants it to be.
As a friend, counselor, and in all my interactions and relationships I am going to remind
myself and others not to dwell on things that I do not have control over and remind them to trust
in God because he loves us. We are to live as Christ did and learn that faith conquers fear, hope
gives us the endurance we need to get through the obstacles we will be faced with and love
removes the selfishness and fear from our hearts.
What is important is God’s plan and purpose. What we need to understand and remember
is that even though we will experience trials, scripture teaches us that our trials are often an
indication that we are living by faith, God just wants to make us stronger and the best response to
these trials is not to fear, but to be happy and experience joy. “Because we know that sufferings
produce perseverance, perseverance character and character hope (Romans NIV 5:3-4). Thus, I
will not fear these moments.
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Reference
Holy Bible
Nichols, K., & Jeremiah, D. (2010). Untie the fear knots ... of your heart. Lynchburg, VA:
Liberty University Books.
