There is no fear in perfect love…and God is love…thus fear is not of God. There are at least 70 times in the Bible when the Lord states, “Fear not!” But taking the head knowledge of not fearing and transferring it into heart knowledge is a continuous journey of building our relationship with God…of learning to trust and not fear.
Tag: love of god
Matthew 21:21 ” I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt…”
Doubt divides our mind into what we believe, and what suddenly we’re uncertain about. It causes us to question, which leads to wavering, which leads to apprehension, which leads to anxiety, which leads to fear. Doubt is like a cold, hard hailstone that the devil lobs our way, hoping it will freeze us up with fear. That hailstone of doubt will turn our belief into disbelief, and our trust into mistrust. Doubt comes first, and if allowed, fear will follow.
Psalm 53:5 ” There they were in great fear, where there was nothing to fear.”
Fear will wrap up our minds, making it play tricks on us. Our mind will immediately race to worst case scenario anytime the phone rings in the middle of the night. A fearful mind won’t allow us to sleep at night as the “what ifs” swirl around in our brain like bats. Fear wraps up our mind, causing us to behave irrationally and paranoiac.
Proverbs 4:25 ” Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you.”
Fear will wrap up your eyes, not allowing you to see clearly. You will be looking, but not seeing…seeing but not perceiving correctly. By turning a blind eye to atrocities…you are silently condoning the actions… and panicking against becoming involved. Fear will wrap up your eyes, making you blind to the truth.
Psalm 38: 13 ” I am like a deaf man who cannot hear.”
Fear will wrap up our ears making us unable to hear. We can then turn a deaf ear to things…refusing to listen. Or we’ll hear, but not listen and understand what’s being said. For fear causes our brain to be unable to focus on small details…so listening intently becomes difficult…because our brain is concentrating on the big picture of fight or flight. Fear will wrap up our ears and make us unable to discern the Lord’s voice clearly.
Jeremiah 51: 46 ” Do not lose heart or be afraid.”
When fear wraps up our heart, we are unnerved and intimidated. We become faint hearted and disheartened…fear preventing us from taking action. As fear wraps up our heart, it destroys our confidence in ourselves…and sadly our confidence in the Lord.
Ezekiel 7:17 “…and every knee will become as weak as water.”
Fear wraps us up and renders us immobile. We are stopped in our tracks…our knees knocking together and even giving way, unable to move. We’re like deer caught in the headlights…panic stricken and frozen in fear. But if we’re paralyzed in fear, we are of no use for the Kingdom…and the devil would like to keep us that way.
Deuteronomy 11:1 ” Love the Lord your God and keep His requirements, His decrees, His Laws, and His commands always.”
The Lord wants us to love Him more than anything and anyone. He also wants us to guard ourselves on how we live and conduct business on a daily basis. For God wants only the very best for us, and by taking responsibility for our actions, we are in alignment with His sovereign principles.
Daniel 5:5-6 ” Suddenly the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall, near the lamp-stand in the royal palace. The king watched the hand as it wrote. His face turned pale and he was so frightened that his knees knocked together and his legs gave way.”
King Belshazzar gave a huge banquet for a thousand of his closest nobles. And while in a drunken stupor, he ordered the sacred goblets they had captured and taken from the Temple in Jerusalem to be used by this rowdy crowd. It was while they were profaning these holy vessels that God doomed them…and thus that fateful saying was born – the writing on the wall.
Psalm 34:18 ” The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.”
I sit here with one of life’s more uncomfortable tasks to do…write in a sympathy card. Why does it seem so difficult and awkward to choose the right words? I want to be compassionate and caring, but at the same time offer hope and encouragement for the times ahead. I want to share a favorite memory from the past that will hopefully give the recipient a smile and a fond memory of their own. Maybe the difficulty of this task lies in my own mortality, or that of my loved ones…for death visits us all, in some form or fashion. But I guess what is most important is not in the words themselves, but the remembrance of the life that is gone…and in the knowledge that God intervenes on behalf of those who are broken in spirit and grieving.
Safetypinlove 