5 Things You Really Must Know About Fear

It’s rampant.  Have you seen it?  You shouldn’t have to look very far.

It’s often disguised with excuses.  We serve up heaping doses of excuses in its place.  We’re quite creative in our variety, but if anyone looked, really looked, under the surface they would see it, they would know.

Sometimes it’s not just the rest of the world we feed, we feed ourselves as well.  “I’ll do that when I have more time”, “That’s just not my thing”, “Oh, I would, if I were younger, richer, thinner, smarter, older.”  Fill in the blank with any variety of “er” you are lacking.  It makes perfect sense.  It’s glaringly obviously, you know.

We sign ourselves up for limiting beliefs, they leak through our system until we believe them as fact.  We leach on to lies, exploit their potential, their history in our past and foundation for our future.  And we settle.

We live scared and pet the dragon.  We tame it and make it a houseguest.  We pacify and justify and skew our view until we hardly see what could be any longer.  It’s easier not to look, right?

In the midst of that, amidst a world that is mostly okay with that, here are 5 thing you really must know about fear.

1) It’s nothing new.  It’s a worn out and tired excuse, really.  God called Moses out on it in Exodus 4, Gideon in Judges 6, and I love that in 1 Samuel 10, when Saul was to be proclaimed king, he was nowhere to be seen.  They eventually found him hiding amongst some baggage.  How very valiant.  Keeping reading.  Take a look at Jonah, at Joseph, at Jeremiah.  They were scared.  This fear thing, it’s real.  And while your situation may seem unique, that overpowering and sickening scared feeling, none of it is new.  In order to move towards God’s calling for our lives we must be willing to step through fear.

2) It’s not going anywhere.  Sure that fear of taking the first step can be conquered, but if you let yourself, you can cozy down and park right there.  The next step is scary too.  Take Moses for example, it wasn’t sunshine and roses after he mustered up the courage to lead.  It was messy.  People got angry with him.  Really angry with him.  Don’t tell me that wasn’t scary. “Lord, why have You brought trouble on these people?  Why is it You have sent me?”  Doubt.  Fear.  Moses’ first step was scary and so was the next one and the next one and the next.  His faith in God’s calling, his belief in God’s providence, and his willingness to step in spite of fear made all the difference.

3) It’s not of God.  Ouch, I know.  “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (1 Timothy 1:7).  “Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)  Do you believe it?  I don’t think those are suggestions, friends.  Those are commands and we either believe them or we simply do not.  As I said before, the Bible is replete with examples of people who feared what God was calling them to do.  That’s the norm.  It’s what we do with that fear, that makes all the difference.

4) It’s not always rational. But sometimes, it is.  When my oldest daughter was about the 3 we went to a local state fair and like good parents who buy gross things because we subconsciously link them to a good childhood, we bought a bag of cotton candy.  Seriously, it doesn’t even taste good, right?  And while two of our other kids were pile driving the cotton candy she wouldn’t touch it.  For some crazy reason, she was scared of it.  For an entire year.  I kid you not, there were tears over cotton candy.  As bizarre as that sounds, I think some of our fears are truly not that far off.  And yet, some are very rational.  Sharks are scary.  It’s okay to be scared of sharks.  But it’s not okay to fear touching the ocean.  Rational or irrational, it’s always where we go with that fear that makes all the difference.

5)  You can’t do this alone.  Moses couldn’t.  Gideon couldn’t.  David couldn’t.  I read a post by Lysa TerKeurst this morning that said “…God never told Moses to bring the power.  Moses was simply to bring the words.  Moses’ job was to be obedient to God.  God’s job was everything else.”  Did you hear that?  Moses’ job was to fight fear and step and God did the rest.  Push away from fear, push toward faith and let God do the rest.

 

I would say it’s just that simple, but it’s not.  Fighting fear is hard work.  Brave work.  We worry about what our friends will think, what our spouse may think, what our mother-in-law might think, but what if we stopped right here and remembered that we live for an audience of One?  The truth is no one else may get it.  David’s brothers thought he was crazy for wanting to take on Goliath.  So did everyone else around him.  But David knew that the Lord was with him and he walked boldly, living his life for an audience of One.

We owe it to the next generation, friends.  The godly heritage, the history of a people who live a brave faith, that could be us.   Our children need to see us doing courageous things.  They need to see us stand for truth when it’s uncomfortable.  They need to see us scared and stepping.  Humbly, bravely stepping.

Our kids need this to be the language they are nursed on and nurtured with because life is hard, politics are messy, parenting isn’t easy, relationships are challenging and we can give them all of the manners and all of the extra curricular activities and work ethic we can muster, but if we don’t teach courage, if we don’t show them what it looks like to stand in the face of fear, to reach beyond what we believe we are able, to have a very real faith in a God who knows no bounds, then might we still completely fail them?

One step at a time, let’s do this.  Step through fear, step toward faith and let God do the rest.