Whom Shall I Fear?

"The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1)

I recently read a story on Alpha Omega Publications "Daily Focus" which fit so well with what is happening in our household. Not this set of circumstances but the dealing with our fears part. The story goes like this:

"An emergency in my brother's family required me to give up our normal homeschooling day to watch his children. Looking out the window, I observed his children and mine playing together in the big tractor tire sand box. Considering that seven children were crowded into one small area, they were getting along quite well. Then, the inevitable happened. One of my brother's sons got upset because his space was violated, and he pushed my oldest daughter out of the sand box. Amazingly, my four-year-old son stepped up to defend his big sister. Raising himself to full height, he said, "You can't treat my sister like that!" My son never even considered the consequences of defiantly challenging his older cousin. The love for his sister filled him with a righteous courage that was ready to take on someone twice his size!"


There are a couple of things in this story that impacted me. The verse from Psalm 27:1 also impacted me in light of impending threats of weather. Tornadoes and thunderstorms loom on the horizon as they push their way towards us during this time of year. Fear seems to be on the edge of all our thoughts, everyday.


Fact # One:
Fear can be a product of Satan as unbelief and unreality. Yes, there are times when a sense of fear is good for us to heed, especially when there is a tornado narrowing it's path towards you, or an unattended child is about to fall over a railing guarding the edge of a long fall into harm. But there are times when we are afraid because of something we cannot wrap our brains around and see God in the midst of it. Fear of talking to people, fear of the reactions of others we need to have a hard conversation with, or other such circumstances where we don't want to look foolish or be thought poorly of. Sometime it is just plain unreality in thoughts we entertain.


"If God be for us, who can be against us?"


The Bible gives us many examples of men in the church, standing against all odds, to share the Gospel of Christ. (see shamah's website) These are great stories of faith and endurance we should remember. But there is another thing we need to remember.


Fact # Two:
We are here on this earth to have relationships with God and with people. Those relationships, in the body of Christ, are called love. "Love one another." That means we have to get involved in each others lives. Sometimes that looks pretty messy. Even though it may look difficult, it is what we are to be about doing. It's not always going to feel safe and secure, confronting someone about their behavior, their lack of  a relationship with you or just finding a way to communicate with them. It's gonna feel scary and uncomfortable for a while. That's OK. Jesus had to do that, too. He had to speak the truth in love and press forward in the knowledge that He was building relationships between people and God. Men tried to kill Him and they threatened him, spoke evil of Him. The same happened with the apostles Peter, James, John and Paul. You're in good company! Rejoice 

"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me."


Fact # Three:
Our relationship with God is the first and most important relationship we must pursue. If our lives are all about ourselves, our preferences, the saving of our lives and ways, then we will lose our lives. Our lives must be put down, put to death, in order to take up a different life which is the reality and life of Christ. 


You cannot serve two masters. You will either serve YOU or you will serve God. You cannot serve both. If you are living the life of Christ then you will be walking into situations every day that challenge the very strongest of relationships with God. But you will stand up to the challenge without fear because your spiritual reaction will be to love and not fight. "Perfect love casts out fear." and "God is Love."


Conclusion:
Our natural reaction to facing fear is to hide or run away. Adam and Eve did just that. They hid themselves. We must ask ourselves, Am I hiding? 


Maybe it's hiding behind a bedroom door so you can spend your time on yourself instead of others, or putting on a smile or a frown to hide the real way we feel. Maybe its acting shy and withdrawn or acting hard and critical to avoid facing interaction with people for fear of being found out for what you are doing or have done. Maybe it's joking and making fun of all sorts of things so you don't have to be serious and accountable for your actions. Maybe it's being unavailable to talk or participate in something social so you are not having to give up your life for other people.


What ever the reason might be, that fact remains that we can hide from people and even try to hide from God. It's a way of escaping the reality of life and facing our fears. It's a lie because it is not the real you in Christ coming out. It's that fleshly, dead things that is leaking out all over the place. It stinks and everyone can smell it except for you.


Stop consuming your time and energy on being afraid to give up your life and die to yourself. Death is not the end of anything you need to hold on to. It is a transformation into a much better life and way of thinking. It is the freedom you need to experience the real life of Christ. Not a fake religious behavior that tries to imitate real worship and love for God and others.


Our lives are to be given up for something much more than our own satisfactions, our own preferences and our own comforts. Jump out in front of the bullet. Take hold of sacrificial love for the King and His Kingdom. Enter into His sufferings and participate in real Life! Be a disciple of Jesus Christ our Lord.  I dare you.


If you want to fear something, fear God who can destroy both your body and your soul. That's a worthy cause for fear. Stop messing around with unworthy things and embrace sacrificial love. You will never regret it. And you will not be afraid of anything ever again.