Be Not Afraid
“Remember [those] who wanted to make me afraid.” Nehemiah 6:14
The fear of God is a grace to be treasured and celebrated wherever it is found. When we do this, we stand against the tide of the world around us. But when we take our stand, we must perch our doctrinal momentum upon the rock of Christ rather than lean it entirely against the error. In other words, we need a biblically balanced understanding of fear. We, in our zeal for the fear of God, may forget that fearfulness is severely sinful. It reveals a puny trust in God, and that is most certainly not what the Bible means when it says Fear God.
People who don’t fear God are filled with a great many fears of their own. They don’t know this, but if they got the fear of God it would set itself against the others and swallow them up like the staff of Moses among the magicians of Egypt. These kinds of fears are evil. Did you know that the evil one tempts you with fear? In fact, it’s one of his chief techniques. What set the wills of Adam and Eve in motion toward the fruit? Was it not a temptation to fear missing out on something that God was keeping from them? You may be sure that the temptation in the Garden was fear before it was desire.
The thousand temptations you face today are not a random barrage of unrelated fiery darts. Satan is strategic, and he places his temptations strategically in line. He sways us off balance with fear and then swoops in from an another side, tempting us to sinful desire, or anger, or bitterness. This is how the powers of evil try to splinter the armies of God, even as Morgoth set his wiles against the first inhabitants of Middle Earth “by fear and lies.” And the two always go together: the lie feeds the fear, and the fear sets us up for the knockout.
Friend, is it possible that fear could be governing you? Fear of what people will think of you. Fear of missing out on things God won’t let you have because he doesn’t really want you to be happy. Earthly fears about safety and comfort. Even the fear of displeasing God can be perverted and tormented into a paralyzing and evil fear for a conscientious Christian. Let’s defy this kind of fear. It’s a main weapon of the enemy of our souls, and a great fuel to the sin within us. Snuggle into a real sense of God’s love for you in the gospel and fear will meet its match, for “there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).