Fear

Crosspost from WeUsed2bu (Weusedtobeyou.com)

If you had to pick your greatest fear, what would it be?
Maybe, like many people, you’d say snakes or spiders. Or possibly, it’s a fear of flying, or just heights in general. One of the most common fears that afflicts people is a fear of public speaking. There’s phobias for open spaces, closed spaces, small spaces, crowded spaces; fears about water, fears about thunderstorms, fears that keep people from the doctor (needles and throw-up), and fears that send them running to the doctor for meds to take their fears away (anxiety and panic). At its worst, fear keeps people hiding at home, but it also motivates people to do some crazy things as they exploit its inherent adrenaline rush (think skydiving and bungee jumping). Fear is a powerful emotion that can grab hold of both the mind and the body, making us captives in our own flesh. So many people are needlessly bound in that prison, not realizing that if they know Jesus Christ, the cell door is open and they’re already sprung! They can, by the power of the Holy Spirit, get up, leave the prison of fear, and walk out into the light of faith.
I was looking back over some of the more recent WeUsed2bu posts, trying to see what common “fear factors” have been plaguing our readers. What I saw were fears about the future, about not being loved, and about dealing with sin. Often, those fears revolve around things we can’t control, as well as the things we are desperate to keep control of. The bottom line is—we need to let those fears go, and refuse to be tormented by them any longer. It’s not that we won’t experience fear in our lives, we just don’t have to be controlled by it. God wants to replace our fear with faith, giving us hope from His love, peace from His presence, and joy from His strength.
First and foremost, fear can be banished from our lives when we understand that God truly is in control. There is no escaping God’s complete and total control of all circumstances, which is His “providence” or “sovereignty” (Is. 46:9-11, Rom. 11:36). Nothing can happen that is outside of His will (Job 42:2, Ps. 33:11). And because God is good, then we know that His will and plans for us are good as well (Ps. 118:1, Jer. 29:11). As believers in the Lord Jesus, we can rest in the fact that our lives here on earth, and our futures in eternity, are secure in His loving hands, and nothing on earth can change that or take it (or Him) away from us (John 10:28-29, Eph. 1:13-14). So if we’re worried about what’s happening in our lives, or what’s to come in the future, we can cast those burdens and fears onto Him, because He cares for us, and He knows what He’s doing even when we don’t (Is. 55:8, I Peter 5:7).
The knowledge that God is in control and is working on our behalf is an important weapon in the battle against fear, but we are blessed with more than that in our arsenal. As God’s children, we also have an unlimited source of love in our lives that is always available to us. Why is that important? Because God’s perfect love casts out fear (I John 4:18). We are loved and accepted by the God of the universe, our Savior Who was just as involved in our lives before we were created as He is now (Col. 1:17, I John 3:1). He loved us while we were still sinners, and He died to free us from that sin and to show us the depth of His love for us (John 3:16, Rom. 5:8). Now, He is in heaven, making the place ready where we will spend eternity with Him (John 14:3). In the mean time, we will never be alone (Rom. 8:38-39). He loves us so much that He is always thinking about us, has our name tattooed on His hand, and keeps our tears in a bottle (Ps. 56:8, 139:17-18, Is. 49:16). His love for us never fails or falls short (I Cor. 13:7-8). We never have to be afraid of not being loved, because God can’t love us any more than He already does!
There’s another kind of fear burden we need to cast onto God, and that is the fear of sin in our lives. I for one have been afraid of my old self rising up, pulling me back to the sins to which I used to be in bondage. But we find freedom from that fear when we claim the truth of who we are in Christ Jesus: we are new creations (II Cor. 5:17). The old flesh is dead, crucified with Christ, and now our lives are actually His life in us (Gal. 2:20) Our old creature will still try to drag us down, but we’re no longer slaves to it, nor are we condemned by our sins, because Jesus has given us His righteousness (Rom. 7:17, 8:1). We’re forgiven of all the sins in our past, and we can trust God to keep us from falling again (Ps.32:1-2, 5, Jude 24). So when we are afraid of sin, and our temptation by it, we have great comfort in the fact that God wants us to cast that burden on Him, too. He will hold us up, not allow us to be moved, and make a way of escape for us (Ps. 55:22, I Cor. 10:13).
God does not want us to waste another minute being worried, anxious, or afraid. The only fear we should have is a fear of the Lord Himself, and that’s not a cowardly, cringing fear. It’s a healthy fear based on respect and awe for Him and His word (Ps. 11:10, Is. 8:12-13, Luke 12:4-5); it teaches us wisdom and humility, and helps us draw closer to Him (Ps. 25:12-14, Prov. 14:26-27). If we have fears in our lives that are keeping us from God, then we need to get back to the basics of His love for us, because His love will literally and totally drive that fear away! Hallelujah!