Have you ever slept on your arm cutting off your circulation? Usually, your body adjusts your sleep without waking you. If you don’t respond, it will wake you up painfully. There are cruel diseases that attack the nerves system. This makes the nerves unable to do their job. As a result people cannot feel pain normally. This can make a person unaware of simple cuts or sleeping on their arm. These extended cutting off of circulation can damage the arm beyond repair.
When seen in this light, pain is a good thing. It wakes you up when there is a problem. Fear, in its proper place is also good thing.
Fear in its proper place alerts us to problems, much like pain in the body. Without pain we damage ourselves without even knowing it. Fear, like pain is an alert system. Fear, like pain not handled correctly makes it a formidable enemy. It can destroy lives and in turn families.
Fear in its proper place alerts us to problems, much like pain in the body. Without pain we damage ourselves without even knowing it. Fear, like pain is an alert system. Fear, like pain not handled correctly makes it a formidable enemy. It can destroy lives and in turn families.
Fear’s Proper Place
If a Rhinoceros was chasing you is fear good? At times, fear is good common sense. It is a natural outcome of intelligence, imagination and at times survival instinct. Fear was present before the fall of man[i] in the Garden of Eden. Here it was in its intended form and for its intended purpose. After the fall man’s intelligence coupled with imagination gave it a life of its own.
In its original form, fear played the same roll as the Law of God. The law or rules of right and wrong were impossible to keep[ii]. That was intentional[iii] on God’s part[iv]. This clearly showed God was not looking for skills, discipline or accomplishments. He took away all bragging rights of achievement[v]. In its proper place the law leads you to Jesus. Jesus represents and is God’s love and grace towards us. The law serves as road barriers on the side of a high mountain road. It keeps you safe in the middle. It shows you what it good on the right side. It shows you that you cannot keep it on the left[vi]. This keeps you on the right way, the truth and the life, trusting Jesus[vii]. The road we travel is a high road with wonderful scenery. It is capable of taking you safely to places otherwise impossible.
Fear, like the law was a natural barrier. It was good, given in love to preserve Adam’s life. Like the law[viii], it is good if used properly[ix]. Communion, exchange of life or interaction with Jesus is its proper outcome. He chose not to listen to its guidance.
Over time, fear, like the law was stretched beyond its intended use and became the focus of attention. They both took on a life of their own. They become the object of attention. Man began to keep the law for the law sake and began to fear for the sake of fear. Intended for good they became bad. Intended to preserve life, self-serving men made them cancers[x]. Fighting fears, like focusing on trying to do all the right things takes our life. Fighting either directly causes us to focus our attention on them. The focus of life is not either fear or doing good things. They serve as guide to Jesus. Both the law and fear are toxic and deadly in His absence.
So fear, as it does what it was intended to do tells us many practical things. It leads us away from Rhinoceros’ or safely on a steep cliff. Fear is like nuclear fuel when used correctly gives us great usable power but incorrectly brings great destruction. To keep fear under containment when it presents itself as Jesus commanded. “Don’t be afraid, only have faith …” Faith is a choice to trust Jesus. Faith is not only a belief, but an action on that belief[xi]. This we can choose because it does not require an overwhelming super natural event or feeling. The size of a mustard seed will do. When we choose to do this, Jesus shows himself to us, the Prince of Peace. Interaction, exchange of life takes place with God in this way.
If we fear, fear, it takes our lives. If we battle fear directly, it takes our lives. If we allow fear to dictate what we do, it will lead us to endless loops of what ifs and again, take our lives. Fear, like all good things direct us to the only one who can legitimately keep fear in its proper place, Jesus.
We by nature seek to travel an adventurous road where fear is part of the journey. We seek to travel it because instinctively we look for more in our lives. Though we may not understand it fully, God says that life is not a thing but a person, Jesus himself[xii], and fear’s place is to direct us to Him.
The next time fear shows up in your life; chose to have faith. Allow it to be a signal to find some part of God’s word that speaks to you. Choose then to trust Him by keeping it. When you keep God’s word, Jesus has promised to reveal[xiii] Himself to you. He is the kind One whose desire for you is to do you good above all that you ever hoped or dreamed[xiv]. In His presence is a sure place where fear does not overwhelm nor do you harm. It knows its place and does not come into His presence. Fear is a sure and true servant not requiring your attention or worship. It is ever vigilant and always faithful to leave you after it guides you to Him.
[i] Genesis 2:15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."
New International Version (NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+2&version=NIV
[ii] Romans 3:20 20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3&version=NLT
[iii] Romans 11:32-34
32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.
New International Version - UK (NIVUK) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+11%3A32-34&version=NIVUK
[iv] Galatians 3:21-22 21 Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. 22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.
New International Version (NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3%3A21-22&version=NIV
[v] Romans 3:27-28 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+3&version=NLT
[vi] Galatians 3:11-13 11 So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” 12 This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.” 13 But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3%3A11-13&version=NLT
[vii] John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A6&version=NIV
[viii] Galatians 3:23-25 Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. 24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Galatians+3&version=NLT
[ix] 1 Timothy 1:8 We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.
New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+1%3A8-2%3A15&version=NIV
[x] Matthew 23:13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. 15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
New International Version (NIV) Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+23%3A1-15&version=NIV
[xi] James 2:26 26 Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James+2%3A14-26&version=NLT
[xii] John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
New International Version (NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A6&version=NIV
[xiii] John 14:21 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
New International Version (NIV). Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14&version=NIV
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