We began our “study” of the word F-E-A-R several weeks ago. I felt it was important because I am noticing a common theme among many people these days…yes, even Christians…and that theme revolves around living in “fear”.
So far, we have looked at the fact that when we allow fear to overwhelm us, it shows our lack of Faith in God. Then, we realized that when we allow fear to overtake us, we lose our Effectiveness for God. Instead of being productive…we become paralyzed. Our focus is on us and not on Christ and at that point the letter “A” comes into play because through our fear, Satan can then Attack.
Today, we will wrap up this study by looking at the “R”. The “R” in fear reminds us that when we are consumed with fear, it is a good time to Repent. I’m not talking about repenting for our many sins – we have probably all done that numerous times - but repentance for believing that God is no bigger than we are. We need to repent and ask God for forgiveness for forgetting how big and powerful He is. We need to realize that our trust has not been in the One who created us and knows everything about us, but our trust has been in ourselves.
The problem then is that when our focus is on ourselves, not only does fear overtake us…but so does worry. Did you know that anytime we worry, we are acting like an atheist? We are acting like we don’t serve an all-powerful God who can handle anything. And unfortunately, the world is watching us and if that is how they see us behaving, why would they ever want what we have? And then at that point, Satan has killed 2 birds with one stone. He not only has us not being effective for God, but He also has those in the world not wanting a relationship with our Jesus.
The only time we need to be worried and fearful is when we are running our own life without God’s direction. Jeremiah 29:11 in the New Living Translation says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
If we really believe this verse is true, that the Lord already knows the plans He has for us, that He isn’t sweating our future, then there really is no reason to fear or worry. Putting our complete trust in Him, having faith that He is powerful enough and big enough to handle anything that comes along, will help our fears dissipate and allow us to live a victorious life which is focused on Christ.
I heard the analogy once that our life is like a puzzle and we can only see one piece of the puzzle at a time. We have no idea what the entire picture of this puzzle looks like, because all we can see is what is going on around us on our little puzzle piece. Each situation which happens to us is another piece of that puzzle. But God knows what the finished picture will look like, so we just need to trust Him to put the pieces together in the order which he deems best.
Will problems arise in our future? Yes. Will things happen to us that won’t be pleasant? Yes. But you see with God in control we don’t have to fear because He promises to give us what we need when we need it. We can rest assured that the will of God will never take us where the grace of God will not protect us. As long as our eyes are focused on Him…we have no reason to fear!
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