Casting out Fear
Three months back when everything was shut down and the whole country was under Lockdown watching the news about what is happening all around the world made be anxious I didn’t had peaceful sleep. So the first thing that I did was I stopped watching the news and started to follow up all news only at the end of the day and get updates. I started checking on my friends and well-wishers all around the world and started spending more time in prayer. When Stuart asked me to speak I wasn’t sure of what to speak I just asked God to give me a word to talk and I got the word “fear”.
Even today things in the world are not good not just corona lot of things are happening that is building fear in the lives of people. Fear is one thing that has become so common.
Why do Govt keep changing in what they say every day? Because they are not sure what to say, they have fear to say the right thing. The fear factor is everywhere today due to uncertainty, lack of trust.
Fears can be described in a variety of ways. Some say fear as anxiety, some say fear as insecurities, some may not say I am afraid but they could be intimidated.
There is the medical fact reported all around the world tells that fear is causing so much of economic destruction, relationship destruction, people have become short-tempered and people are committing suicides out of fear.
People either have a real fear or imaginary fear or phobia. Some people have real problems and they fear that and some imagine problems and fear them.
In the moment of fear, the 2 basic responses are commonly flight or fight I discovered there is 3rd one as well freeze we do not know what to do.
Fears affect us physically, emotionally, spiritually, socially, and mentally living in fear is not good for our brain or bodies. Many fears come out of anxiety of failure, pain, or out of inconsistent feeling. Or inadequacy. Many times I struggle with fear of inadequacy I question myself do I have that skill to do? Am I capable of doing this or that?
Let’s see what the Bible talks about fear
One Bible scholar once said that In the Bible God has mentioned fear not 365 times because one for each day saying do not fear through the year and I think that is so true.
Some people say if you have fear means you don’t have faith in God which is not true. People who were with Jesus our lord they got sacred. Fear is a human thing it’s an emotion the problem is when we are not willing to trust God’s ability to bring us out of fear then there is a problem.
1) In the Bible passage Luke 8: 22–25 (Jesus calms the storm) Firstly we see that
Fear is connected to loneliness.
Disciples were lonely that is why they were scared when wind and storm came through. Jesus was with them but they were not engaged with Him.
Fear has an open door if we put Jesus to inactivity. Imagine if Jesus was engaged in their conversations on the boat he could have told its okay wind will come and that wave will rise we can handle it.
Even in our lives sometimes lord is with us and yet we are lonely why?
Because we don’t engage with God in a relationship, we don’t engage God in our lives, in the everyday conversations, we take our emotions, feelings in the direction where there is no room for the Lord.
The exact opposite we see in Life of David in PS 23:4. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil. For you are with me your rod and staff they comfort me. The situation in Luke and in psalms is the same. David has God and disciples has God with them but the difference is David was engaged with God. David was in constant fellowship with God and God was teaching him and guiding him in every step of his life. David was confident because God was with Him.
God can anytime come into our situation and can talk straight to us he is almighty God but He never disrespects our self-will, freedom of choice. Disciples choose to be lonely even though Christ was beside them.
2. Fear comes because of lack of guidance, uncertainty, what will happen next, not sure how to move forward causes fear When Jesus told the disciples lets us go to the other side. when Jesus said let’s go to the other side I think they just jumped into the boat because they like boating. When Storm raged they forgot what they are going to do next they lost purpose on the other side.
a couple of months back Many Times I too was anxious about when will things become normal when will church open, the situation around change. I realized that when we are praying and when God is on our side yes there are concerns, yes there is a level of stress to deal with issues. We don’t have to be afraid because God is in the driver seat. We are in window seat He knows when to apply breaks, when to change gears we don’t have to worry, we just need to listen to his instructions and keep going with him. The problem is many times we fight for the steering wheel. We say lord you are my master then we try to show him the direction. We as His children need to let Him direct our lives. Instead of losing a lack of guidance, we need to count on the promises of God and connect with the purpose of God for our lives. Heb 8: 11 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called and went out not knowing where he was going.
3) Thirdly Fear is actually connected to self-worth.
Why didn’t disciples tell Jesus you are going to die Jesus awake up? Instead, they said wake up and save us because they were sure, confident Jesus will not die. Somewhere in their minds, they had the feeling that we are not people of worth, not people of value to live.
People who have low self-worth tend to be more afraid fearful, sorrowful.
They have a fear of rejection, fear of shame. We as God’s children need to know that we are forgiven washed by the blood of Jesus. In today’s world value is based on how much money you paid for it. For the things we pay more we value them more. The Perfect son of God shed his blood on the cross of us. If we stack together all the euros, dollars, and rupees on one side and put ourselves on the other for God you are more worthy. You and I are more value to him than all the money on the earth.
Self-worth is not the worth of certificates or degrees we have or the work we do or what Medical reports say, it is not based on how others value us. It should be built on what God our creator speaks about us. He says you are valuable. John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one’s life for his friends.
If today Jesus asks us where is your Faith? What is our answer have we kept it in our grandmother's prayers or kept it in pastors prayer or in the bank balance.
Do we have more faith in people or Govt or circumstances than in the mercy and grace of God? Is there anything that our Father cannot do?
If fear in us is stronger than our faith we can turn to God and he will teach us because Bible says His mercies are new every morning, His faithfulness is new every morning and His love is new every morning.
Feeding on God’s word will build our faith and calm the storms that are raging within us and we need to put our faith in relationship with God.
Walking in faith does not mean we won’t have fear. Walking in faith means that when issues come or storms rage we will not work out of fear but will work out of faith.
We can face any fear when we know the Lord is with us.
God is telling us today fear not keep me engaged in your life, take guidance from me, you don’t have any reason to be afraid why “ I the Lord your God I am with you” Amen!
