Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Fear?
Fear who?
Your nemesis!
Fear. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear or see this word? Incidents or images may come rushing in. Maybe you’ve woken up sweating from having dreamed a nightmare.
Do you have fears? Some are afraid of relationships, the future, sickness, finances, death, flying, sailing – the list is endless. Is fear always bad? Not really. Fear that results in flight or fight mode when we are faced with imminent danger doesn’t harm us but instead protects us from a possible near-death experience. For example, swerving your car to avoid collision or freezing at the sight of a snake as you plan your next move.
But the fear that damages us is chronic fear. Fear is the single most important cause of several problems and diseases in our lives today. The modernised word is stress. Maybe you didn’t answer “Yes” to the question earlier on having fears. But now, if I asked you if you were stressed, would you answer positively?
The world we live in can condition us to learn to live with fears. You may have even read lifestyle articles that say it is perfectly normal to have fears. Has fear become your friendly foe? Many people think that they fear because they are not courageous or brave. Some may even believe it is their lack of faith. But, is it? Let’s go to our manual, the Bible, to check this out:
You may be familiar with the verse 1 John 4:18. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (KJV) From this we could say that the absence of love allows fear to breed and grow. The perfect love that is written in this verse is the agape (Greek word), the unconditional love of God.
To dig deeper, let’s go to 1 John 4:16. “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.” (KJV) The key here is to note the difference between the words ‘know’ and ‘believe’. As per their Greek roots, the meaning of the word ‘know’ is to learn, to have knowledge or to understand; whereas, the meaning of ‘believe’ is to think to be true, to place confidence in or to rely on.
When you came to believe in Jesus, one of the main ideas that would have touched you the most is that God the Father loves you, unconditionally. You understand from scriptures that God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son to die on the cross to redeem it. (John 3:16)
But, my question to you is – do you rely on it? Do you trust the Father’s love with your life and the lives of your family? Do you have confidence in His perfect love for every area of your life?
Giving in to your fears opens the door to negative thought patterns to make strongholds in your mind. Focusing on such thoughts feeds them and increases your belief more in the fear than the Word of God. You start speaking out your fear and then see it manifest in your life. Before you know it, you have created a feedback loop where your life begins to revolve around this fear rather than our Lord Jesus Christ. This in turn opens the door to the enemy.
However, where you choose to resist fear and allow His love to permeate, fear cannot remain. His perfect love evicts it from your mind. Our Heavenly Father does not want you to live a punished life. Jesus came so that we may have life in all abundance. (John 10:10)
I’d like to share a testimony from my life. I don’t like being in places that are small and narrow, but when I was sightseeing on our last holiday in Europe, that’s exactly what happened. My husband and I were going to walk up a medieval tower whose stairway tapered as we got closer to the top. There were 200 steps. As I followed my husband into the tower, he being much taller than me, I started to realise that this was not going to be like the ones we had already climbed.
My heart beat faster with the reduced light and the narrowing way. Fear began to rise on the inside of me. At the same time, came the comforting words of the Holy Spirit – pray in tongues. I obeyed and marched up to the top, triumphant. I enjoyed a fantastic view of the city. We took pictures and praised our Heavenly Father for His perfect love. Had I given in to my fear, I would have missed out on praising God and making memories of victory.
This last thought may challenge many of you – fear is not a feeling as psychologists claim it to be. In 2 Timothy 1: 7, the Bible says that fear is a spirit: “For God hath not given you a spirit of fear (timidity, cowardice) but of power (strength, ability), love (affection, kindness) and a sound mind (self-control, moderation).” (KJV – brackets are mine)
The Holy Spirit gives us the same power that raised Christ from the dead (Romans 8:11), opens our heart to receive the perfect love of the Father and helps us to renew our mind (Romans 12:2).
If you struggle with fear/stress, I’d suggest meditating on these scriptures and asking the Holy Spirit to help. You may also talk to someone and look to receive support from the body of Christ.
Contributed by Hazel D’Almeida
