What Do We Fear?
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles, uncategorizedOne of Grimm’s fairy tales is about a rather dimwitted young man who didn’t understand what it meant to shudder in fear. People attempted to shock him by putting him in all sorts of terrifying situations “” but to no avail. He finally did shudder, though not out of fear. He was asleep when someone poured a bucket of cold water and wiggling fish on top of him.
Something is wrong with us if we’re never afraid. Fear is the natural human reaction to any difficult or dangerous undertaking, and God doesn’t condemn it. On the other hand, neither does He want us to be crippled by fear. Jesus’ words to His disciples on more than one occasion were, “Do not be afraid” (Luke 5:10; Luke 12:4; John 6:20). The verb tense used in these passages gives us the idea of continuance, i.e., “Don’t keep on fearing.”
We need not be overcome by our fear, nor should we ever say no to doing what we know God wants us to do merely because we are fearful. God can turn our fear into fortitude. We can trust God and “not be afraid” (Psalm 56:11).
Courage is not the absence of fear but the mastery of it. So let’s resist our fear and meet it with faith in the Lord, for He has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). Let’s remember that we can face any fear when we know the Lord is near (John 6:16-21).