By Pastor Jeff
Fears, we all have them no matter how much we deny we do. Most christians associate fear with a lack of faith but we need to ask ourselves is all fear a bad thing?
Well it depends what meaning of fear we are talking about, the Old testament has over 24 different meanings for the word afraid, fear, fears, fearful, and fearing, the New Testament has at least 10. And not all are associated as bad, Proverbs 3:7, “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.” or the most well-known Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” You see many times the meaning af the word fear is defined as “revere or give reverence to” that is definitely not lacking of faith is it? If I fear being burned, I will keep my body away from a flame or something that may cause a burn, is this a lack of faith? Of course not, we need to understand that the english language and those that translated the word of God from its original had a tremendous task of trying to use the correct words in our rather limited language English. They did an excellent job but we need to get our definition from the context of what is being read.
It is interesting to read all the different fears or “phobias” that are described in the medical field, some are seemingly foolish such as “Barophobia– fear of gravity” since you really can’t do much about it or “Chaetophobia” fear of Hair” I guess that’s why I’m bald. But some are way more serious and can control us for when I was younger I had a severe fear of public speaking “Glossophobia”, I know a great fear for someone who would become preacher. But it was delibatating to me, I would become petrified at the very thought of having to stand up in front of any group to give a speech. So how did I overcome it? through the power of the Spirit of the Almighty and the word of God! did it happen over night? No, but one of the first scriptures I put to memory was Hebrews 13:6, “So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”and 2Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” The word of God is one of the most powerful tools that any believer can tap into to help him or her overcome any fear of man that we have!
Let us be bold for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and not be found in the number of people that are found missing heaven in the book of Revelations 21:8, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” The word fear here means, timid or faithless, not a word that should be associated with church of Jesus Christ for not even the gates of hell can prevail against it!
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