Fear

I just read a webzine article on fear. The title seemed a little odd, "Fight Fear with Fear." How does that work? But it made sense after I read the article.
Fear keeps us from doing all kinds of things. It may be fear of failure or fear of success or fear of rejection or fear of the next task to be faced, but fear can more effectively neutralize the abilites of a Christian than any other force known to me.
It says in I John 4:18 that perfect love casts out all fear. It says in the Psalms that if God is for us, no one can stand against us. The Lord is my light and my Salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?
In the end there is only one fear advocated by Scripture: the fear of God. That was the second "fear" in the title of the article mentioned above. Whatever else we fear in life, it can be combated with the fear of God, because our loyalty is to the Lord and every obstacle to that loyalty should be gotten through, over or around.
So why do we, why do I allow fear to paralyze me? Why do I waste hours, weeks and days failing to do what I am called to do and what needs to be done because of fear? Where is my faith? Where is my fear of God?
All things are possible with the Lord, but I stand in the way, stubbornly opposing what I know to be right out of fear. God forgive me, and grant me the courage to change!