The Strangle Effects of Fear...

The Strangle Effects of Fear...
Light For Life August 2005

Fear is so subtle isn't it? It creeps in and does its work and often has been there quite some time before we even realise its effects. You don't have to consider yourself ‘fearful’ to be a victim either, in some ways fear does its work on all of us until our eyes are opened and we stand against it.

I do not consider myself fearful, but recently I have noticed that God is uncovering the evidence of fear in my mind and I was quite surprised to see a picture emerge that fear was at work. Fear doesn't usually jump up and loudly say ‘Here I come! Boooo….’ Fear has a way of slinking in and corrupting optimism and blanketing our thoughts with underlying worry.

God began to show me that I had been allowing fear to choke the promises of God in my life. I had unknowingly been listening to its voice and unaware that as I did, it eroded faith and belief in the promises God has for me and whether they will come to pass. Fear kind of washes over us and of course the thing about fear is that there is always an element of truth in it and it seems to make sense.

I had started to worry about my future and a lie crept in and began to convert the promises of God. The thoughts go something along these lines –‘Things will just get harder and continue to go wrong. You have no control over this. How can you handle that? What will you do? How will you cope?

These thoughts get integrated into our system and are sometimes hard to identify, after all they are not irrational fears are they? They all seem to make sense and are quite probable so I don't fight them off so aggressively. It dawned on me as I felt the increasing weight of the burden that had been loaded. You see the bible says ‘fear has torment’ – that is the effect that it has on us. But, what does God’s word says? Doesn't it say God has a ‘plans’ to prosper me and not to harm me, plans for a hope and a future? Where did all that go? That is when you see that fear choked out the promises that God has made.

Fear coerces us to believe out future is uncertain, shaky, difficult, impossible, but if we will live and commit each moment to God then we counter attack fear. That is how fear crept in, because I had not been doing moment by moment trust in God. If I do moment by moment then I only have to deal with that moment. It is when I start getting ahead again – in my HEAD that things start to overwhelm. If I live as God wants me to, and do that by trusting Him for each thing and moment, then it is not as easy for fear to sneak in because the security door is locked and it has to be opened to let anything through – which then is a choice.

So, to begin to overcome fear we don't need to try and tackle the whole weight, we don't need to eradicate it all at once, we need to weed it out at each moment – that is doable, realistic and achievable. As soon as we feel anxious is it is a sign that we have opened the door to fear, but as soon as we feel this it can be a trigger for us to reclaim the ground by trusting God for the moment and taking one thing at a time. At that moment we can remember that when we are weak He is strong and then move forward and push through.


Love
Cam

Word For Life

Interesting
Fear has no place in love
Bold confidence (John_4:17), based on love, cannot coexist with fear. Love, which, when perfected, gives bold confidence, casts out fear. The design of Christ’s propitiatory death was to deliver from this bondage of fear.

Fear hath torment — the Greek meaning, “punishment.” Fear is always revolving in the mind the punishment deserved [Estius]. Fear, by anticipating punishment (through consciousness of deserving it), has it even now, that is, the foretaste of it. Perfect love is incompatible with such a self-punishing fear. Godly fear of offending God is quite distinct from slavish fear of consciously deserved punishment. The latter fear is natural to us all until love casts it out. “Men’s states vary: one is without fear and love; another, with fear without love; another, with fear and love; another, without fear with love”

Barnes Commentary
There is no fear in love - The man who feels that he loves God with all his heart can never dread him as his Judge. As he is now made a partaker of his Spirit, and carries a sense of the Divine approbation in his conscience, he has nothing of that fear that produces terror or brings torment. The perfect love - that fullness of love, which he has received, casteth out fear - removes all terror relative to this day of judgment, for it is of this that the apostle particularly speaks. And as it is inconsistent with the gracious design of God to have his followers miserable, and as he cannot be unhappy whose heart is full of the love of his God, this love must necessarily exclude this fear or terror; because that brings torment, and hence is inconsistent with that happiness which a man must have who continually enjoys the approbation of his God.


The Word

1 John 4:18-19
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He who fears has not been perfected in love.
We love Him because He first loved us

1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love [dread does not exist], but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and [so] he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love [is not yet grown into love's complete perfection].