Day 14: Are you afraid?
Proverbs 29:25,
“Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.”
Are you afraid? Do you fear what tomorrow is going to bring? Do you see the coming challenges as hopeless or hopeful? Are you ready to be brave or hope it is all over soon?
It is natural for us to fear, but it doesn’t mean that it should control our lives. Uncontrolled fear can lead to irrational thinking, behaviors, and worst, spiritual paralysis and death.
Read the bible and you’ll notice even some of the greatest recorded believers faced fear. The most intriguing case of fear for me would be the story of Elijah. In one moment, by the grace of God, Elijah confidently faced 850 prophets. The story shares him not only being faithfully confident but having a confidence that allowed him to mock the other guys. In sports we call this trash talking when you know you’re better than the other guy, so who doesn’t like a trash talking prophet. However, the confidence of trash talking gave way to a spirit of fear when we come to 1 Kings 19:3,
“Then he was afraid, and he arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.”
The person(s) to whom we ascribe the most authority to define who we are, what we’re worth, what we should do, and how we should do it is the person(s) we fear the most. In essence, we fear the one whose approval we want most. God designed us this way, for it reveals who and what our heart loves. Fear comes from the place where our heart’s treasure is stored (see Matthew 6:21). It is a fear of losing or not obtaining something we really desire, which is why it wields such power over us.
Elijah feared for his life. We, on the other hand, can often fear for much less. As I wrote many of these devotionals, the devil reminded me that I am bi-vocational. What I have written will not go over well in society today. This may cost me my current job or future jobs if someone wanted a reason to “cancel me” based on my beliefs. It’s like the many people who are now running around apologizing for what they said or did 10, 20 or more years ago.
Ascribe God the most authority in your life. Trusting God is safe; fearing man is not. God teaches us this through the hard lesson of obeying in spite of feeling afraid. For then we learn to trust God’s promises more than our perceptions and reach the place where,
“we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’”
Hebrews 13:6
Action: Share your faith with a stranger.