Tag Archives: fear

Fear

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Wooden roadways in Montana

Wooden roadways in Montana (Photo credit: N Vision Photos)

I was walking into town one day, in Troy Montana.  As I came into a straight street, I saw a man walking toward me.  He looked dirty.  His beard was long.  His clothes were rag-tag.  And his hair was long.

I crossed over to the other side of the street, as if I would cross the rail yard.  But before the terrain would let me cross the yard, he and I passed by each other.

I was busy trying not to be there.  I didn’t want to talk to him.  All I wanted to do was what I had come to town to do.  But he had no respect for my fear.

“Don’t be afraid of what you don’t understand”, he said to me.  I just looked at him and nodded.  Going on my way as fast as subtle feet of panic could take me.

Are you afraid of what you don’t understand?  Do you fear what the Lord has graciously given me to write?   Do you think that behind these words there lurks a monster of a man?  Or are you irritated that I just refuse to disappear?  I may not be as hideous as you think.  And the words I am given to write may just taste pretty good after all.

By His Grace.

Proverbs 26

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13A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road,
a fierce lion roaming the streets!”
14As a door turns on its hinges,
so a sluggard turns on his bed.

Fear.  It is not a part of the garb we are given by the holy Lord of life.  But the lazy servant will resort to fear.  He does not trust.  But his Lord demands that he trust.  Therefore he is lazy in his fear.

Be afraid.  But do not let your fear cause you to return to your bed.  Be afraid as you are assaulted. But do not run back to the safety of your bed.  Command your flesh to obey His will.  It is only your reasonable service. 

Let us confound the world by a display of confidence.  We are held by the Everlasting God.  Where is that testimony among the Lord’s people today?

The Humiliation of Doubt

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Ghost fear

Ghost fear (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

C. S. Lewis, in his book “The Problem of Pain”, speaks of the difference between a fear of fleshly harm and that of spiritual harm.  If there were a tiger about to attack us we would feel a certain fear.  But if we were told there was a ghost about to harm us we would feel a different fear; that of dread.  The fear of  bodily injury is not the same as spiritual injury.  One is tangible.  The other is “other worldly”.

All Christians must deal with this concept in one vain if they are to be successful in their worship of the Most High God through the sacrifice of Jesus.  We must believe that God is good despite the appearance of harm and evil that surrounds and attacks us.  Isn’t this the very point of contention between faith and worldly thoughts?  The athiest ignores the concepts we promote based on this barrier between good and evil.  It should not be so with those who say they believe.

Some have told me that it is ok to doubt from time to time.  “It’s just a natural response to the unknown.”  Or so they told me.  However, after a few decades of following Jesus, I find this far too simplistic to hold with any serious intent.  I look back at when I doubted and count those weeks, months, or years as utter failure.  We are not encouraged to put up with doubt.  We are commanded to believe.

I don’t blame anyone for my own failures.  But I wonder what it would have been like for me to continue in belief through out my entire experience with Jesus.  I am caused to wonder, though useless trivia now, who and where I might be now if I had continued steadfast in my trust.

We are all of this place of testing.  And we all have a similar story about doubt.  It is the point of this post to encourage a hatred of doubt and a love of trusting faith.  Regardless our present experience, there is coming a place where we will regret not trusting.  We would be wise then to wear a trusting faith more and more.  We dress the body for the sake of the moment.  Shouldn’t we also learn to stop walking around spiritually naked?

Working for the Lord

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I drive a semi-truck for a living (that is to use my time productively and to make money so I can be of value to those who need me).  What do you do for a living?  I have never seen the Lord drive a big rig.  I have not seen it with my eyes, read it in the writings of others, or imagined it in my mind.  But I will confess that the Lord knows how to drive a big rig better than any driver I’ve ever seen.

I have found something useful to relate about what we do for a living.  I do not drive the semi alone.  The Lord is before me, behind me, above and on the sides of me.  He is

A FAW truck in China

A FAW truck in China (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

ever-present to guide, correct, remind, and prepare. I have seen Him cut the traffic open like He did the Red Sea for His people.  I have seen my reaction to situations change because He was there to instruct me.  Patience has become the headlights.  Endurance has replaced tired.  And His love restrains my anxiety over the foolishness of people.

It is not I who drives this truck.  It is the Lord leading me as I do the job He has allowed me to enter into.  If I let Him drive the truck by listening to what “is”, remembering what is written about what is true, and paying attention to the “living conversation” between He and I, I do well.

What I find interesting is how I balked against this for a long time.  How I thought that the Lord wasn’t all that interested in what I did for a living.  But I have come to see this as a testimony.  In every aspect, (if I let Him lead, and remain true to His commands) success becomes the banner over the top of every day.

Someone might ask, “Well that’s fine.  But what if you get in an accident?”  My friend, I already have.  And I endured that chastening just as I endure the rush traffic of Detroit.  Patience and truth are the leaders of everything good.  They are the strength to endure what cannot be endured by man alone successfully.  In every job, every rightful pleasure, and every moment sleeping, this is true.  And it remains a possibility for every man who has ever lived, regardless what he did for a living.

“Thou shalt not steal.” Do not speed.  Do not take up more room than you need.  Count others as more important than yourself.  Assume the worst is about to happen, and be ready to lovingly respond.  And make it a living testimony to the efficacy of the Gospel within you.  What more can we do?  If, at some point, these things fail you and you stand with no concept of what to do, be patient.  You are never alone.  It is as if it is the Lord Himself who is enduring the situation in your place.  Give Him Glory and do not worry.   If He allowed it to happen to you He will carry you through it.

Learn to live like this and you will see the end of anxiety in everything.  In Him, even death has no sting.  What shall we say then about any other form of suffering or toil?  Do not fear.  For fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not yet made complete in love.  And the One who loves us is true.  Therefore we could certainly say that the one who fears is living in doubt.  Doubt of the Lord’s promises is to call Him a liar.  What more needs to be said?

Sadness

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Today there is a sadness over me.  People who know me know I am a Christian.  And they know that I am not ashamed to speak of my love for the Lord Jesus.  Yet not one of them comes to ask.  I have taken this sadness to the Lord.   He reminded me that this is the case between man and animal.  Even though a man means no harm to the wild birds, not one will come to him because fear.  This is the fear that was instilled in the animals at the sin of Adam.

Does this mean that the Lord considers the wicked as mere animals?  The answer is yes.  Isn’t this the charge against us all if we remain outside the Lord’s provided salvation in Jesus?  Yes.  There is transformation from animal to man.  But few challenge their own fear.  They know they do not have peace with God.  Yet they encourage one another to remain in fear by making up stories.

Does this knowledge help my sadness?  In an odd way, yes this does help.  Because it defines the reason for the cause.  But the pain of watching them contrive a false sense of security abides.  All the while I am among them and can reveal true security.

They speak of money, knowledge, social position, angel worship, every religious ritual known to man, and entertainment, as if they hold the key to the complete security of eternity; that security which blots out all fear.  Every lie born from the imagination of man receives great praise or even debate.  All the while they purposely ignore the Lord Jesus and His people who hold the Gospel within them.  So this sadness continues, yet is abated a bit.

The Slough of Dispond

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Slough

Image by born1945 via Flickr

The Lord has given me many words to the unsaved and the proud.  Yet there are many who will take heed from those words.  I write this post for them.

As we encounter the Truth of God regarding our sins, we often fall into a state of disrepair and despair (I take note of the similarity of those two words).   It will be expected that receiving Jesus’ gift of Life is going to become a heavy burden at first.  More weight will be pressed upon the one who receives His guidance.  For all we have done will surface for us to examine.  This is expected and will surely surprise the one who thought “The Way” would be an easy saunter, all the way to the Holy Throne of God.  “The Way” is both the hardest way for a man or woman to live and the easiest.  John Bunyan wrote of this in his book “Pilgrim’s Progress”.

“This miry Slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore is it called the Slough of Despond: for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place; and this is the reason of the badness of this ground.”

I do not want anyone to fall into hopelessness because of the burdens that will press upon them.  Keep your hope in Jesus and believe.  This place of horror will not last forever.  Yet it is a necessary part of accepting Jesus.

By His Grace.