What Do You Have In That Bag? Part Three

Bag of Fear

“…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself…”. These are some awesome, thought-provoking words that were spoken by President Franklin Roosevelt on March 3, 1933.

            There is an enemy that lurks within us …that enemy is fear.

            Since September 11, 2001, we have become a nation of fear. We live with the constant threat of terrorism, global warming, nuclear disaster, and horrific crimes being carried out on the home front. We, as President Roosevelt said, fear, fear itself. When things are going well, we are well. However, when the enemy has us in his grasp and we are too afraid, or don’t know how to break lose; we lose sight of God’s promises. Remember what Joshua said to the children of Israel when they were getting ready to cross over into the Promised Land…”Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9) Oh how wonderful it would be if we could just take solace in those words! However, that human part of us can’t see beyond today. We just cannot grasp the brevity of any situation.

            When fear takes hold of us, we become virtually paralyzed; we cannot move forward or backward. We are stuck in a place where we don’t want to be, but feel powerless to do anything to change. The past holds us captive and the future terrifies us! We all have “issues”, but how we handle them has a great impact on how those “issues” affect our lives. Being in an abusive marriage greatly increased my proclivity for fear. I feared getting out of bed each day because I feared what the day would bring and how I would be to able cope. I feared nightfall because I knew that I had to stay awake until my husband came home from work. I thought about what John said in 1 John 4:18-19 and I knew that something was terribly wrong with that picture. The love of the Lord and each other should have negated any fears that I was experiencing, and since that was not the case, where was the love in the relationship? I was a Christian and God did not give me a spirit of fear, but one that would help me to overcome those that wished to do me harm as found in 2 Timothy 2:7

            After so many years, I asked myself: how do I overcome the fear? How do I regain control enough to rely on the Lord? There were so many examples in the scriptures that I could learn from. Even from the beginning, the Lord gave us hope against fear, as we can see in Genesis 15:1; he told Abraham to not be afraid “…I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward,” and He is! In Isaiah 43:5, God told his people to “fear not…” With assurance, David lets us know that “the Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1); to combat fear, we must trust, and that trust should only be put in the Lord! “In God (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust; I will not fear; what can flesh do to me?” (Psalm 56:4); we must remember that trust works along side hope. We have to hope in the Lord and know that no one can do anything against us, whether real or imagined. “…The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Hebrews 13:6) When you trust in a person, you put all your confidence in that person. You feel safe when that person is around you, as if you are a part of their space; and you have a calm contentment surrounding you. Those are the very same experiences you should have in the Lord; for only the Lord will be there forever! Trusting in God casts out all fears. (Mark 4:38-40) You can be in the midst of a raging storm, but if you trust in the Lord you will have no fear because you know that He will bring you through it. Consider your life a series of raging storms; as each one abates you thank the Lord for bringing you through it, knowing that another one is enviably on the way and the Lord will bring you through that one as well.

            Do not trust in man; man will always let you down, even if it is unintentional; but Jesus died for us and trusting in Him should be as natural as breathing. Yet, our flesh gets in the way every time! We fear what we don’t know, we fear what we don’t understand, we fear what we cannot see, and that fear inhibits trust from taking root. We must learn from the bad experiences we go through in life; experiences that are born from our bad choices. However, bad experiences usually impede the growth of trust and that which we do not trust; we usually harbor a degree of fear. True love conquers fear. Think about that person that you truly love; you are not afraid of that person. Without thinking, you entrust your very life to that person, so why can’t you do the same for the Lord? God’s love is pure because “God is love”! (1 John 4:8) No matter how much you love someone, their love will never equal the love of God. In God, there is no fear because love and fear cannot dwell together.

            We all fear something, and if we say that we are totally without it, then we lie. As a parent, there is a certain amount of fear when our children are out of our sight. It may not be enough to cause hysteria, but it is just enough to cause us to breathe a sigh of relief when we hear their key turn in the door. We all have a little fear and apprehension of the unknown; it is just a human reaction, many times an unconscious and unacknowledged fear. And it is okay, it is natural; Jesus, Himself, experienced a very brief, minute moment of fear on the cross (Mark 15:34-35) it lasted only a millisecond as he turned himself over into the hands of His Father, with those unforgettable words, “not my will, but thine…” (Mark 15:37). Know that when fear invades, draw even closer to God; hold onto Him with both hands and even feet! Sink into His ever presence knowing that He will not allow your fears to overtake you, but you must bring it to Him and believe that He will guide you.

            It is hard to live with fear; afraid all day, of everything. It is exhausting and overwhelming. Fear causes you to lose sight of reality, sapping the desire to live because you are afraid to fully live. Afraid to that any decisions you make may be wrong; afraid to care for anyone because past experiences have taught self-survival means not giving in to any semblance of emotions; afraid to be in a crowd because you think everyone is looking at you; afraid to reach out because you don’t think anyone will be there to take your hand; afraid to confide your fears, desires, goals, hopes, or dreams because you don’t think anyone really cares about how you feel, and even afraid to share with your brothers and sisters in Christ because you don’t want to be judged. Fear can become an obsession, and that is just not the way God wants us to live!

            Walking out on faith takes fear out of the way; faith replaces fear, so toss out that bag of fear and replace it with one of love. For “there is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has been made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:17-18)