Fear
By Laurel Head
Have you ever been in an icebreaker group and the get-to-know-you question is “What is your greatest fear?” There might be the small fears: fear of clowns, fear of snakes, and fear of spiders. Some people have much bigger fears: fear of death, fear of the unknown, and fear of losing everyone. My biggest fear is lightning. Where I live, there have been some severe summer thunderstorms and the lightning is pretty scary to me at times. I have been woken up several times at night and spent upwards of 15 minutes watching the light flashing in my windows and praying that a bolt of electricity wouldn’t hit my metal-roofed cabin in the middle of the woods. In this article we will look at what fear is from a worldly perspective, what fear is from a Biblical perspective, and how to overcome fear.
How does the world define fear? Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines fear as an unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger, anxious concern, profound reverence and awe especially toward God, reason for alarm. We will focus on an unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger, anxious concern, reason for alarm; in this section. This kind of fear brings anxiety, alarm, and sometimes irrational thinking into our lives.
Let’s look at some people in the Bible that had worldly fear. The first example is Elijah. In 1 Kings 19, Queen Jezebel threatened to kill Elijah. He was afraid for his life and ran. To give context as to why he shouldn’t have been afraid, in the previous chapter, God had demonstrated his power to the nation of Israel and Elijah by sending fire from Heaven to consume the sacrifice that Elijah offered when Elijah had challenged the priests of Baal to sacrifice to their god. The next example is Gideon. In Judges 6-7, Gideon is told by God, through an angel, to go save Israel from the Midianites. That night, God tells Gideon to throw down an altar of Baal and make an altar to sacrifice a burnt offering to God. However, since his family used the altar of Baal, Gideon was afraid to do this by day, so he did it under the cover of darkness. After his father stated that Baal should defend himself, Gideon gathered his family and other tribes of Israel together to defeat the Midianites and the Amalekites like God had told him. However, Gideon asked for a series of signs from God because Gideon was fearful to attack such a huge army with a small group of people. In the end, Gideon, with God’s help, defeated the host of Midian.
Now let’s look at fear through a Biblical perspective. The second type of fear in the Bible is described as the fear of the Lord. This fear is a reverential awe that reminds us as humans that we are insignificant compared to God and should cause us to want to obey His Word. Deuteronomy 10:12 sums up what the fear of the Lord is: “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” Ecclesiastes 12:13 says, ““And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.”
What are some ways that we can overcome worldly fears? The biggest way that I overcome fear is by prayer. Praying can help you to focus your attention on God and who He is. He made the world and everything in it. He made a way to overcome sin, what else do we need to overcome if sin is the only thing that can separate us from God? For example, if I am about to be killed, what should I fear if I am a Christian? I shouldn’t fear anything because “I know that over yonder stands a place prepared for me.” Another way to overcome fear is to study God’s Word. Reflecting on certain verses that encourage and strengthen you, can help to calm you down and focus on the task at hand. Another way to overcome fear is to logically think through the situation. For example, if I dislike dealing with wasps and I am scared to do something because there is a wasp, I try to figure out the best way to do that task without getting stung. Stopping and thinking through the situation calms down a racing mind and forces you to concentrate on all aspects of the task at hand.
Lastly, when we are afraid, remember Who we are and Whose we are. Matthew 10:28 says, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” This should be a constant reminder to us that the world can’t hurt us spiritually, therefore we shouldn’t have any fears on this Earth. The only one that we should fear, with a reverential fear, is our Father.