Living Without Fear
By
Barbara Thayer
Ever since the first lockdown took place in our nation over a year ago due to the COVID19 virus, many of us have experienced anxiety over the unknown as we heard about people dying from this terrible disease. It seemed like reports changed daily as to how to avoid it, how long it would last, and when it might be safe to re-open businesses. For us, the isolation ended as we returned to home group and finally worship services once again just recently. This was a high point for us after the months of remaining at home. Oh, we still take precautions, but we refuse to let fear dominate our lives as we follow the Lord’s guidance in matters.
We all will acknowledge that fear is a paralyzing emotion. When it takes hold, we cannot use our reasoning abilities given to us by God. Unfortunately, Satan knows this very well, and tries hard to feed us with things that cause us to doubt God and His power. This is how sin first came into the world as Satan caused Eve to doubt God’s good will toward them. He made it seem to Eve as though God did not want her to have the knowledge of good and evil. God was holding out on them; so the woman took matters into her own hands. As a result, both she and her husband disobeyed God and fell into sin. Now they lived in fear of His judgment.
While we don’t have Satan whispering in our ear as he did in the Garden with Eve, we do have many other tools he can use that can pull us away from trusting in God. For example, we have to be careful of misinformation spread on the internet, in the news or over the air waves. In my own situation, I belong to a number of social media sites so I can interact with friends. However, one of the drawbacks comes from people spreading questionable information about conspiracies, vaccines, and groups of people. If all these things were to be believed, we would never leave our house, never seek medical treatment, and have little to no contact with other human beings. Yet, this is not what God has called us to do. 2 Timothy 1:7 tells us: “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love and a self-control.” Paul was trying to encourage Timothy in this passage to stir up the gift within him and not be overcome by fear.
In another letter to the Roman church, Paul wrote this about fear: “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” Here Paul is reminding his fellow believers that the spirit of slavery is our fear of death and final punishment. However, we have been set free as Christians from this fear and can draw near to God intimately.
Another letter written by the Apostle John ( I John 4:18) proclaims the freedom we have from fear when we know the love of God: “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” Through Christ, we have salvation and the outpouring of God’s love through forgiveness. This casts out all fear so why do we get entangled in it?
Let me suggest that we turn off that T.V. and social media for a while. Quit listening to the opinions of others. This world is full of different persuasions on any subject. We are called to live by faith not fear. Seek the Lord and His wisdom and understanding on issues of importance. Don’t spend time running from one opinion to another or you will find yourself in a knot of anxiety. God has given us a sound mind with which to reason and His Holy Spirit to teach us in His Word. He has also given to us godly men and women that can pray with us for discernment. Most of all, let us lean upon the Lord Jesus who told us not to worry in Matthew 6:25-34. Remember that fear puts a wedge between God and us when we yield to this form of slavery. May we pray instead: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths” (Prov. 3:5-6). Selah!
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