mAnufacture of cOntent

mAnufacture of cOntent.

FEAR (2)

Fear is something we have all experienced. Fear doesn’t respect age, knowledge or size. If you told me you were fearless I would definitely be sceptical of you because the fact is that everybody is subject to fear in one area of their lives or another. Every individual has different fears but I can confidently say that to some extent, we all (including me) pertain to fear of being rejected; that is- fear of man.

First of all, we need to understand what fear is. Here are some quotes on fear that I particularly find useful:

“Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.” – German Proverb

“Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake.” -Edgar Wallace – The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1916)

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” -FDR – First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

“To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.” –Bertrand Russell 

“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.” – Mark Twain

“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity”. –Henry Van Dyke 

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.” –Jim Morrison

From these quotes, we can learn a lot about what fear is:

• Fear is an emotion
• Fear is inevitable
• Fear is a time waster
• Fear amplifies and places emphasis on the negatives
• Fear is a killer
• Fear must be overcome

That’s right; we must overcome fear and in doing this, we mark the beginning of many great achievements. Before we go any further, we need to understand that fear is not of faith! In fact the two contradict each other. Fear is everywhere faith isn’t. In fact, there’s absolutely NO need for any follower of Christ to be afraid. Why? Because:

“God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” 2 Timothy 1:7

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

When we acknowledge this, we realise that we have the means to overcome fear easily because we know God! All we need to do is accept it. We also realise that our fears are petty when looked at in the bigger picture. If you don’t mind, I’ll quote from my own poem, “This life is but a blade of grass in the forest of eternity”. The term “This life” includes all of our worries, problems and fears. So all in all, our fears are tiny and we can beat them with the help of God.

Furthermore, embracing fear is a sin. We know that fear is not of faith and this is shown in Romans 14:23 which says, “But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.” Revelations 2:18 even makes this clear by informing us bluntly that the fate of the cowardly is in the fiery lake of burning sulphur! Doesn’t this then mean that we are sinning unnecessarily? Yes!

Believe it or not, Jesus’ closest friends got scared. Remember when Peter denied Jesus three times for fear of being persecuted? Remember when the disciples saw Jesus walk on water towards them and got scared. Mark 6:49 reads, “When they saw him walking on the lake, they thought he was a ghost. They cried out”. You only cry out when you are VERY scared. However, in the next verse Jesus told them to “Take courage!” Even the apostle Paul who wrote a large portion of the New Testament experienced fear. In 1 Corinthians 2:3, he says, “I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling”. I don’t know about you, but I take comfort in the fact that even they experienced fear. This shows that even those closer to Jesus than we are, those on higher spiritual levels than us, those who are commonly mistaken as fearless actually do experience fear.

But upon reflection, I notice that there’s a difference between them and myself. Why haven’t I achieved as much as they have? The answer is this: Whilst I wallow in my fear and retreat from the exit of my comfort zone, they beat their fears! Romans 6:14- “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” They stopped allowing fear to control them and stepped out knowing God was with them and they were certainly not disappointed! We must follow these examples and beat our fears too. If we truly know God, we know that there’s nothing to be scared of because he dearly cherishes each and every one of us (1 John 4:18 –“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…”) Too often we think about our fears, iniquities and problems instead of focusing on the Lord that goes before us. Let us beat fear, and become effective disciples!

Action points:

• Ask God in prayer to give you boldness and stay with you always.
• Make a list of fears that limit you and set out to conquer them right now!
• If you do not know the Lord then please get in touch with me through WordPress or Twitter. I’d love to have a chat with you and show you how you have nothing to fear!