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What is the one thing that instantly strikes fear in your heart? Is it public speaking? Maybe you fear losing your job and not being able to provide for your family. Not having enough money for retirement or the fear of losing your job and facing a financial crisis are the cause of major anxiety and fear for almost everyone. I have a fear that my wife could have a health crisis and I would find myself a widower. There is nothing else that causes me more anxiety than the thought of living alone. When I was a boy once in a great while I didn't obey my parents, okay maybe more frequently than I want to admit, I was a difficult child. My mother had one phrase that would instantly strike fear in my heart! She would say, “Don't make me tell your father!” The minute she uttered these words I immediately changed my behaviors. When the bible says that God has not given us a spirit of fear, does that mean that we should never feel fear? Feeling fear is part of being alive. If you don't feel fear upon occasion you must be insane. Even if life seems to be going well and you don't feel any of the fears I mentioned before you may feel fear when you are doing something you have never done before, or when obstacles seem insurmountable. But does feeling fear mean you are a coward? No not at all, you are only cowardly when you allow your fears to dictate your actions or decision.
2 Timothy 1:7 ESV For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.
We live in a sin filled world and because of that any number of things can fill you with fear. Feeling fear is not the same as being afraid, when you are truly afraid you let those fearful thoughts control your actions and decisions. I might feel angry, but I choose not to act on my anger and the same applies to fear. I might feel fear, but I don't have to let that fear control my life and the decisions. The bible says, do not fear, hundreds of times. But what does that mean? Are you wrong to feel fear when you’re not sure how to pay next month’s rent or when you get that dire health diagnosis or when your job is on the line? When God says, do not fear, he is not commanding us to shut off our brain and emotions. God doesn't want us to be without fear, to be emotionless and stoic like a robot. The real issue God wants us to wrestle with is, where we go when we face fear. Where do you go when you have fears? How do you deal with your fears?
Isaiah 41:10 ESV Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Simply put, God wants us to go to him. Fear can paralyze us! Yet when we place our fears in the hands of God, when you place your faith in God, even in the midst of your fear, your no coward, and you can overcome your fear! God is all powerful and He desires to be with us in the midst of our fears! Unfortunately, no one will be able to completely escape fear in this sin filled and broken world. It is real. It can be paralyzing. It is powerful. But God is more powerful.
Psalm 46: 1-3 ESV God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
There is a song from the 70's that goes something like this; Put your hand in the hand of the man who stilled the water. Put your hand in the hand of the man who calmed the sea. Place your hand in the hand of the man from Galilee, place your faith in Jesus!
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