Day 19: Fear

“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” Psalm 56:3

Satan loves to strike fear in our hearts because he knows that fear paralyzes. Paralysis keeps us frozen in one place. We cannot move. We cannot accomplish anything … not even things that are right beside us. If we even attempt to do things that are close to us during this paralysis, we can really botch them up because we are not able to function normally.

The definition of fear is actually two-fold. First, fear can be a reverence or submission to God. Second, it can be an emotion that is affected by the belief that something is either dangerous or threatening. I would like us to look at both of these, because both of these play a part in our spiritual battle against Satan.

First, there is our fear of the Lord. There is not much of this seen in today’s world, is there? Men do not fear the Lord. They do not respect or submit to the Lord. Oh, they claim to be Christians, but in their actions, they show the opposite.

Many scriptures encourage and admonish us to fear the Lord. Verses like Proverbs 1:7 tells us that “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Who wants to be thought of as a fool? Not me! How about you?

Second, there is our emotional fear. There are many types of emotional fears … fear of spiders, fear of heights, fear of the unknown, fear of water, fear of flying, fear of death, fear of man’s opinion, fear of change, and the list just goes on and on.   Emotional fears can be just as dangerous as our lack of fear for the Lord because they distract us, they paralyze us, and they keep us frozen in one place.

As I find myself increasing in years (not aging, you know, but just increasing in years), that I have acquired quite a fear of flying. It practically paralyzes me … and I have even been known to have anxiety attacks as well. In fact, please do not even mention anything even remotely close to severe weather, other plane crashes, etc., etc. You get my drift, do you not?

One scripture that has really helped me to keep my focus when fear wants to overtake my life is Joshua 1:5b “as I was with   Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” Just reading down through Hebrews 11 is a great help and encouragement to keep moving forward and to not let fear paralyze me. It can be very hard to take that step of faith and launch out into the deep (the unknown), but sometimes that is exactly what God is waiting for. He is waiting for you to take that step of faith and then He will show how your faith has made you whole (complete in Him)!

No matter what our emotional fear is we can overcome! Can you imagine when the Israelites arrived at the Red Sea? I imagine they stood there in fear … but as they stepped forth in faith, what happened? God parted the sea and they not only went forward on dry ground but they left behind all the bondage and fear that had been holding there in Egypt!

Do you find yourself standing at the edge of the “Red Sea” waiting for God to part the waters? Take that step of faith, my friend, and God will bring you forth to the other side … free from the bondage that has kept you in Egypt! Freedom so rich and sweet … made whole and complete in Him!