Dealing With FearSample

Fear Is Real

The Lord knew that one of the enemy's main weapons would be fear. From the very beginning, Satan used it to convince Adam and Eve to doubt and question whether God really had their best interests at heart. Again and again in Scripture, whenever the Lord’s messenger interacted with a human being his first words were “Fear not!” These words appear more than 365 times throughout Scripture. That lets us know that fear is not uncommon. It’s human to fear.

It’s important to remember that not all fear is bad. Good fear is reverence and awe for God. But when He says, “fear not,” He’s talking about the kind of fear that cripples us and keeps us from obeying His call to love and serve others. Everyone who God used in the Bible had to deal with their fears. I’m grateful that the stories in the Bible left that part in. When I see what the heroes of our faith accomplished, they seem almost superhuman. It helps to know that they had to deal with their own fears too. Just like we do.

Gideon was afraid and put God to the test repeatedly (Judg. 6:17–23). The disciples were afraid when the stormy water of the Sea of Galilee whipped against their boat at night (Mark 4:35–41). Peter made bold claims about dying for Jesus, even if everybody else turned away. And before midnight, he had denied knowing Jesus three times—because of fear (Luke 22:57–60).

In Love over Fear, Dan White Jr. shares his personal journey through fear. With raw honesty, he talks about taking a leisurely walk through his neighborhood and seeing a black man. Immediately, he became afraid. Just the image of a black man in his neighborhood struck fear in his heart. The fear was not based on anything the young man had done. It was based on a prejudgment. Those prejudgments keep us sheltered in our neighborhoods, afraid to cross the tracks where “they” live. We’re afraid to have conversations about justice because we might say the wrong thing. We’re afraid to take a stand because we might lose friendships with people who are in our group. We’re afraid.