Overcoming Fear
Le 26:36 “I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.”
Fear is basically a biologically determined response to a perceived threat. Fear and anger are two sides of the “flight or fight” response that automatically pumps adrenaline into our system, enabling us to either flee (fear) or confront (anger) the danger. The problem is that unlike most animals, when people are afraid or get angry, it’s seldom because of some direct physical threat, but much more often because of some perceived threat to our self-esteem or ego. Fear and anger in human beings is usually grounded in human pride. It's the kind of fear that derives from the fact that we’re always trying to judge and control others and make them bend to our will, and when they don’t, we perceive it as a threat to our own security, self-esteem, or happiness. Whenever we try to control something or someone over which we really have no control, our behavior becomes dysfunctional, and we react with the kind of fear or anger that’s inappropriate.
Through Moses, God gave the people of Israel certain commandments and laws to live by. He also gave them a choice in whether they would follow these laws. More than that, He laid out the consequences of disobedience, so they would know beforehand the repercussions involved in whether or not they chose to obey. The full consequences of disobedience were not simply in suffering the penalties prescribed within the law itself, but in being tormented and burdened with the kind of fear that can easily overcome us whenever we are living our lives without the presence and protection of God. The Law of Moses was not originally instituted to keep people in constant fear of breaking the law, but rather to deliver them from the kind of fear that our pride inevitably produces whenever we presume to defy the will of God. Obeying God doesn’t mean living in constant fear, though certainly some religious people would like to make us think it does. It’s really about exchanging our fears for the grace and protection of God.
Those who obey the law are also protected by the law, and those who do the will of God are protected by His grace. By doing God’s will rather than our own we become free from the sort of fear that is rooted in human pride. It’s when we presume to have control over situations and people over which we have either no right or no ability to control that we put ourselves in direct opposition to the will of God. When we live our lives completely out of sync with the will of God, refusing to accept the real challenges he’s given to us to face in life, the end result can be that we become too afraid to really live our life at all. We’re alive, but not really living. We’re just surviving or getting by, and we can become paralyzed by all our fears.
It only makes sense that whenever we live in opposition to God’s will that somewhere deep down we realize we can’t possibly win. The more we try to make others bend to our will, the more we become the victims of our own pride. We can never defeat God’s will, and we have no right to control, to judge, or to condemn other people, as much as we may like to pretend otherwise by playing god. When we try to control others, it’s our own life that is controlled by our fears - and the more we condemn others, the more the spirit of condemnation can eventually permeate our entire being, so that everything we do can seem destined to fail. So like a man who commits a crime, and then lives his entire life running away from the law – we can live our life afraid and running away.
The antidote to human pride and the kind of fear it produces comes when we turn our will and our life over to God’s care, and accept Christ as our savior. Just as fear comes naturally when we are living under God’s condemnation, courage comes by way of faith to those abiding in the grace of God. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Ro 8:1) As long as we are doing what our pride demands, fear will always rule over our life, and everything we do will become our way of running away from God. The same fear is what keeps us in bondage to our flesh, and that’s why fear is the primary instrument of the devil. But once we decide to do God’s will instead of our own, the courage of Jesus’ sacrifice and the spirit of his victory gain dominion over the fears of our flesh. We effectively die to our flesh and to our fears so that we can live more fully in Christ.
There are many religious people who claim to be doing God’s will, though they really aren’t. The way the Bible says we can know whether we have turned our will and our life over to God is when we love our neighbors as ourselves. “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Gal 5:14) Love is the fulfillment of the law, because God is a God of love. “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1Jo 4:7-8)
When we love others without judging, condemning or trying to control them – even praying for those who hurt us, and doing good to those who do us evil - we’re no longer condemned by the law, or shackled to our fears either. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear:…He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1Jo 4:18) “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2Ti 1:7)
The power of God’s love is in its ability to free us from the fear that made us slaves to our flesh. Our illusion was that by fearing and hating those who may have injured us, or who may have threatened our interests, we were only protecting ourselves. So instead of fearing God alone and relying upon His protection, we came to fear other people. We learned to use fear and anger to protect ourselves (or at least, our inflated view of ourselves). Instead of trusting God, we made an un-holy alliance with our fears – to do whatever they were telling us to do, rather than listening for what God was saying.
Unfortunately, the more we tried to protect ourselves, and the more we resented others for not bowing down to our interests or doing what we thought was right, the more our life was controlled and dominated by our fears and resentments. Instead of protecting us, these fears only increased and came to rule over us like tyrants, often manifesting in various addictions. This only stands to reason. Because the world wasn’t created to do our bidding, but to do the will of God; so that the more we irrationally feared or hated others for not conforming to our interests or doing what we thought was right, the more our world was defined by everything we ultimately feared and hated because it was out of our control. Just as it says, “The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” (Pro 29:25)
In the end, we can either be ruled by our fears, or come to accept God’s authority over our life. The kind of decision we make will determine not only the kind of life we lead, but also color our view of the world. Whether we live in a very frightening world full of peril, or in a world full of God’s love, grace, and blessings, depends upon our decision and who we trust and are really listening to – our fears, or God.
The Bible says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps 111:10, Pr 1:7, Pr 9:10). What exactly does that mean? It means that when we decide to fear God alone, and we trust Him to protect us (rather than trusting our fears), we can finally begin to see and understand the world as it really is, and exactly as God actually created it. Not as if the world was something created to conform to my will or understanding, or to do my bidding - but to do God’s will, according to His own purposes.
Wisdom isn’t possible as long as we are looking at the world through the eyes of all our fears and resentments, as if the world was only an extension of our childish pride and magical power. Wisdom happens when we mature spiritually, and begin to perceive the world through the eyes of God’s infinite love, and according to His higher understanding and purpose. The reason we fear only God is so that we can become wise enough to rejoice with God in what He created, rather than despising what all our fears invented. We make our fears subject to His will so that our life can be guided by His grace and wisdom, rather than being pursued through life by all our fears, and finally ending up where “even the sound of a shaken leaf will chase us.”
Make no mistake - fear can very easily take over our life, and most people’s lives are defined by all their fears in one way or another. Even what is called ‘success’ in the world is usually the result of some underlying fear of failure and poverty, which is why the wealthy seldom seem happier or more secure. But when we can face our fears squarely - knowing that nothing can ever happen to us that God can’t heal and make right again – we find peace, and discover how the only thing we have fear is fear itself, and the consequence of relying upon our pride. The proper response to fear and the harm others do to us should always be in seeking God more intimately, rather than seeking revenge, or always seeking to expose or change others. We fear God alone so that we can ultimately have nothing to fear from others.
It’s not that we should go around always feeling afraid of what God may do to us – that’s the opposite of living in the grace of God. We make all our fears subject to His will and authority so that we will ultimately have nothing to fear. In the same way that we keep all our money in the bank so that we can know it’s safe and secure – we keep all our fear in God knowing that He will keep us safe and secure. We don't need to look to others for self-esteem because we are the children of God.
When we are no longer living in the shadow of our fears, we can begin to live more in the sunshine of God’s grace, knowing that we’ve turned our will and life over to His care. Not that we no longer have any fears – realistically speaking we may even have more to fear if we are being persecuted for our faith. But our fears no longer need to rule over us, as long as God is ruling over us. Our fears become subject to His will, and He is faithful to give us the courage to overcome our fears – mostly by learning how to ‘love our enemies, do good to those who curse us, and praying for those who despitefully use us, and persecute us.’ (Mt 5:54) The way of overcoming our fears is by learning to love our neighbors unconditionally. By changing our habits and the way we react to our fears, we are also changing the way we live our life, and the way we relate to God. Not that we can do all this overnight, or by some force of our own will (which was really the problem in the first place), but by putting our faith in God, we look each day for the grace to do what we couldn’t do alone, and to love in a way that we couldn’t before.
Jesus said, “Fear them not therefore, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid, that shall not be known.” (Mt 10:26) We don’t need to expose all the religious hypocrites in the world, or make everyone pay for their evil actions – God already sees and knows what’s going on, and He will bring everything into the light in His own time. But how we react to our fears today can mean the difference between living a condemned life in a world full of imminent danger, and discovering that eternal life full of blessings from God. By loving our enemies rather than reacting to our fears, we are fulfilling the law and no longer living under God’s condemnation. We have escaped the tyranny of our fears to find refuge in the grace of God.
Fear is basically a biologically determined response to a perceived threat. Fear and anger are two sides of the “flight or fight” response that automatically pumps adrenaline into our system, enabling us to either flee (fear) or confront (anger) the danger. The problem is that unlike most animals, when people are afraid or get angry, it’s seldom because of some direct physical threat, but much more often because of some perceived threat to our self-esteem or ego. Fear and anger in human beings is usually grounded in human pride. It's the kind of fear that derives from the fact that we’re always trying to judge and control others and make them bend to our will, and when they don’t, we perceive it as a threat to our own security, self-esteem, or happiness. Whenever we try to control something or someone over which we really have no control, our behavior becomes dysfunctional, and we react with the kind of fear or anger that’s inappropriate.
Through Moses, God gave the people of Israel certain commandments and laws to live by. He also gave them a choice in whether they would follow these laws. More than that, He laid out the consequences of disobedience, so they would know beforehand the repercussions involved in whether or not they chose to obey. The full consequences of disobedience were not simply in suffering the penalties prescribed within the law itself, but in being tormented and burdened with the kind of fear that can easily overcome us whenever we are living our lives without the presence and protection of God. The Law of Moses was not originally instituted to keep people in constant fear of breaking the law, but rather to deliver them from the kind of fear that our pride inevitably produces whenever we presume to defy the will of God. Obeying God doesn’t mean living in constant fear, though certainly some religious people would like to make us think it does. It’s really about exchanging our fears for the grace and protection of God.
Those who obey the law are also protected by the law, and those who do the will of God are protected by His grace. By doing God’s will rather than our own we become free from the sort of fear that is rooted in human pride. It’s when we presume to have control over situations and people over which we have either no right or no ability to control that we put ourselves in direct opposition to the will of God. When we live our lives completely out of sync with the will of God, refusing to accept the real challenges he’s given to us to face in life, the end result can be that we become too afraid to really live our life at all. We’re alive, but not really living. We’re just surviving or getting by, and we can become paralyzed by all our fears.
It only makes sense that whenever we live in opposition to God’s will that somewhere deep down we realize we can’t possibly win. The more we try to make others bend to our will, the more we become the victims of our own pride. We can never defeat God’s will, and we have no right to control, to judge, or to condemn other people, as much as we may like to pretend otherwise by playing god. When we try to control others, it’s our own life that is controlled by our fears - and the more we condemn others, the more the spirit of condemnation can eventually permeate our entire being, so that everything we do can seem destined to fail. So like a man who commits a crime, and then lives his entire life running away from the law – we can live our life afraid and running away.
The antidote to human pride and the kind of fear it produces comes when we turn our will and our life over to God’s care, and accept Christ as our savior. Just as fear comes naturally when we are living under God’s condemnation, courage comes by way of faith to those abiding in the grace of God. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Ro 8:1) As long as we are doing what our pride demands, fear will always rule over our life, and everything we do will become our way of running away from God. The same fear is what keeps us in bondage to our flesh, and that’s why fear is the primary instrument of the devil. But once we decide to do God’s will instead of our own, the courage of Jesus’ sacrifice and the spirit of his victory gain dominion over the fears of our flesh. We effectively die to our flesh and to our fears so that we can live more fully in Christ.
There are many religious people who claim to be doing God’s will, though they really aren’t. The way the Bible says we can know whether we have turned our will and our life over to God is when we love our neighbors as ourselves. “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” (Gal 5:14) Love is the fulfillment of the law, because God is a God of love. “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.” (1Jo 4:7-8)
When we love others without judging, condemning or trying to control them – even praying for those who hurt us, and doing good to those who do us evil - we’re no longer condemned by the law, or shackled to our fears either. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear:…He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1Jo 4:18) “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2Ti 1:7)
The power of God’s love is in its ability to free us from the fear that made us slaves to our flesh. Our illusion was that by fearing and hating those who may have injured us, or who may have threatened our interests, we were only protecting ourselves. So instead of fearing God alone and relying upon His protection, we came to fear other people. We learned to use fear and anger to protect ourselves (or at least, our inflated view of ourselves). Instead of trusting God, we made an un-holy alliance with our fears – to do whatever they were telling us to do, rather than listening for what God was saying.
Unfortunately, the more we tried to protect ourselves, and the more we resented others for not bowing down to our interests or doing what we thought was right, the more our life was controlled and dominated by our fears and resentments. Instead of protecting us, these fears only increased and came to rule over us like tyrants, often manifesting in various addictions. This only stands to reason. Because the world wasn’t created to do our bidding, but to do the will of God; so that the more we irrationally feared or hated others for not conforming to our interests or doing what we thought was right, the more our world was defined by everything we ultimately feared and hated because it was out of our control. Just as it says, “The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoever puts his trust in the Lord shall be safe.” (Pro 29:25)
In the end, we can either be ruled by our fears, or come to accept God’s authority over our life. The kind of decision we make will determine not only the kind of life we lead, but also color our view of the world. Whether we live in a very frightening world full of peril, or in a world full of God’s love, grace, and blessings, depends upon our decision and who we trust and are really listening to – our fears, or God.
The Bible says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps 111:10, Pr 1:7, Pr 9:10). What exactly does that mean? It means that when we decide to fear God alone, and we trust Him to protect us (rather than trusting our fears), we can finally begin to see and understand the world as it really is, and exactly as God actually created it. Not as if the world was something created to conform to my will or understanding, or to do my bidding - but to do God’s will, according to His own purposes.
Wisdom isn’t possible as long as we are looking at the world through the eyes of all our fears and resentments, as if the world was only an extension of our childish pride and magical power. Wisdom happens when we mature spiritually, and begin to perceive the world through the eyes of God’s infinite love, and according to His higher understanding and purpose. The reason we fear only God is so that we can become wise enough to rejoice with God in what He created, rather than despising what all our fears invented. We make our fears subject to His will so that our life can be guided by His grace and wisdom, rather than being pursued through life by all our fears, and finally ending up where “even the sound of a shaken leaf will chase us.”
Make no mistake - fear can very easily take over our life, and most people’s lives are defined by all their fears in one way or another. Even what is called ‘success’ in the world is usually the result of some underlying fear of failure and poverty, which is why the wealthy seldom seem happier or more secure. But when we can face our fears squarely - knowing that nothing can ever happen to us that God can’t heal and make right again – we find peace, and discover how the only thing we have fear is fear itself, and the consequence of relying upon our pride. The proper response to fear and the harm others do to us should always be in seeking God more intimately, rather than seeking revenge, or always seeking to expose or change others. We fear God alone so that we can ultimately have nothing to fear from others.
It’s not that we should go around always feeling afraid of what God may do to us – that’s the opposite of living in the grace of God. We make all our fears subject to His will and authority so that we will ultimately have nothing to fear. In the same way that we keep all our money in the bank so that we can know it’s safe and secure – we keep all our fear in God knowing that He will keep us safe and secure. We don't need to look to others for self-esteem because we are the children of God.
When we are no longer living in the shadow of our fears, we can begin to live more in the sunshine of God’s grace, knowing that we’ve turned our will and life over to His care. Not that we no longer have any fears – realistically speaking we may even have more to fear if we are being persecuted for our faith. But our fears no longer need to rule over us, as long as God is ruling over us. Our fears become subject to His will, and He is faithful to give us the courage to overcome our fears – mostly by learning how to ‘love our enemies, do good to those who curse us, and praying for those who despitefully use us, and persecute us.’ (Mt 5:54) The way of overcoming our fears is by learning to love our neighbors unconditionally. By changing our habits and the way we react to our fears, we are also changing the way we live our life, and the way we relate to God. Not that we can do all this overnight, or by some force of our own will (which was really the problem in the first place), but by putting our faith in God, we look each day for the grace to do what we couldn’t do alone, and to love in a way that we couldn’t before.
Jesus said, “Fear them not therefore, for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid, that shall not be known.” (Mt 10:26) We don’t need to expose all the religious hypocrites in the world, or make everyone pay for their evil actions – God already sees and knows what’s going on, and He will bring everything into the light in His own time. But how we react to our fears today can mean the difference between living a condemned life in a world full of imminent danger, and discovering that eternal life full of blessings from God. By loving our enemies rather than reacting to our fears, we are fulfilling the law and no longer living under God’s condemnation. We have escaped the tyranny of our fears to find refuge in the grace of God.
posted by R. Stephen Hanchett at 2:25 PM
<< Home