Fear?

Today’s Reading: Matthew 27:11-26

Fear has continued to pop up all throughout this blog and so lately I have been really thinking about it. The Bible tells us time and again to ‘not fear’ and although I know that in my mind, it is extremely difficult not to have fear, especially when times are difficult. So what is God trying to tell us, how do we get rid of fear? We don’t---fear is going to rise up in us at times no matter how strong we are, no matter how faithful we are---it will because we are human and that is a good thing. You see, I believe that it is not the fear itself that causes us to not follow God, to not do something, or even do something we shouldn’t---it is our reaction to fear that determines where we stand with Christ. Our reaction to fear can hold us back and not let us do what we were called to do, or our reaction may cause us to do something wrong, against the will of God. Fear will arise, but when it does we have two choices. 1. Let it overwhelm us and drive all our decisions. 2. Confront it, admit that we can’t overcome it and allow Jesus to take over. Think about all the great people in the Bible, didn’t most of them have fear, but then they made that decision and did what God asked them to do. I am sure Noah was afraid when God asked him to build an ark, something no one had ever done, what about Moses in front of the burning bush, Esther when she had to go before the King, Jonah when God asked him to go to Ninevah, Mary when God asked her to carry and raise his son, the disciples when Jesus called them and the disciples when Jesus was arrested. There are so many more stories, but we learn from these stories and many more that Godly people rise up when fear arises. Satan wants to use fear to control us, sometimes to cause us to do harm, but sometimes he uses fear just to make us lazy, to not do anything at all and what good are we to Jesus if we do nothing at all?

I have run out of time, but God is definitely not finished with this message. I just feel that I need to go ahead and post this and then the rest later---so here it is, hope everyone has an extremely blessed day!