How many times does the Lord say to us… do not fear? Take a look at how often He does say this in His word. Any thoughts? As a matter of fact, we are told not to fear 365 times in scripture! One for each day of the year.!? Incredible. So why don’t we not fear? Is fear and faith a trust issue? OF COURSE. And more.
There is absolutely NO area in our lives that fear isn’t addressed in scripture. I think the point is if you feel your faith is flagging and needs supporting, look to the (specific) fear and the Word’s response to it. And still… why do we let fear in, because it is we who give in to the fear. Do we forget our faith? our weapons? our response to fear?
When you begin to study out the ‘why’ we aren’t supposed to fear, I think you’ll notice that many times it precedes an important announcement. It’s almost like a divine attention phrase that is supposed to ease us into listening and understanding what will come next. One of my favorites is when the angels appear to the shepherds.
“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people. For this day in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (the Messiah).” (Luke 2:10-11, AMP)
Obviously, when something occurs, from the momentous to the mundane that we don’t understand, we do/may tend to respond initially with fear until we actually do hear, do begin to understand the message that is being imparted/given. Then the joy emerges. Can you put yourself, for a moment, into the shoes of those shepherds who have seen the great star (light) and now see rejoicing angels? Wouldn’t you be just a tad bit concerned as to what this was purporting to be (do)? But fear?
Again, it may be an issue of semantics/definitions. Fear, in my world, is defined in terms of those ‘things’ that I have NO control over and never expected so I’m not certain how I should react. For me, ‘fear’ is an absence of knowing what to do and/or how. Simply because I’ve never experienced (fill in the blank) is not necessarily a cause for fear.
I know that the church speaks in terms of fear as the absence of our faith but this is generalized and fear has many manifestation: physical, emotional, specific, general, harm, challenge, etc. When we do experience a sense of dread, fear… we need to do a quick assessment to discern what the threat is and what’s being threatened. Rarely is this done. Bravado, anger, flight are only some of our reactions to a perceived fear.
All that leads to understanding but it does not eliminate our fear nor adequately explain it. I believe that this is because fear really is individually defined and experienced. What may cause fear in me may be laughable to you. What we all need to do is recognized when we are heading toward fear and stop before we react. Fear is meant to cripple us. But as we turn to the Lord and exercise our faith… we overcome and do not fear.
