It has been said: "Fear is able to capture and actually paralyze a person's mind."
This one man tells of how one night a large mirror in their home fell off the wall and came to the floor with a thunderous crash, shattering the mirror itself and breaking a piece of furniture below it. For the next 6 months the man would wake in his sleep, sweating and in fear that something else might drop from his bedroom wall or ceiling and kill him while he slept.
Fear can also take on a positive effect. There is the story of the man walking through the cemetery late at night and accidently fell into an open grave that had been prepared for a burial the next day.
He desperately did all he could to climb out of the open grave, but was unable to get the leverage he needed. Finally, after numerous attempts, he simply wore out and decided to sleep until morning and wait until someone would arrive to help him.
While this man slept, another man during the night had the same idea, took a shortcut through the cemetery and also came upon the open grave which he did not see...and fell in. He was already tired and simply crawled over to a corner and went to sleep.
The first man who had fell in the grave had awoke about a 1/2 hour before dawn, and decided to give it some more tries to climb out of the grave, and began jumping up and down in an effort to get a hold of something that he might pull himself up and out of the grave.
The second man, now keenly aware there was someone else in the open gravesite with him, watched as the first man made numerous but vain attempts. Finally, the 2nd man said to the 1st man (who also was not aware someone else in the grave with him) in a rather "sleepy deep voice": "You will not be able to get out of here that way."
But...he did!
Fear does have the capability of increasing your adrenaline...and it has the power to tie your stomach up in "knots". The age old equation: Fear + Failure = Anxiety, seems to be alive and well today.
The word "fear" in the Greek comes from the word "phobos". Fear then can be categorized as a phobia, which in the english definition means: to have an anxiety disorder that is accompanied by a persistent fear (often a person, and object, or a situation).
There is great resources to the "world of fear and it's origins", but 3 of the most basic types of fear seem to be:
1) Specific phobia: a fear of spiders, snakes, or water for example.
2) Agoraphobia: fear of leaving home or familiar scenes.
3) Social phobia: fear of being with others...in a variety of scenarios.
Personally, I think our own Christian "religion" has made a mess for people that honestly are wanting to be freed from their fears.
Fear has caused our view in life to get blurry at times...between fact and fantasy. We hear of vampires, werewolves, zombies...and then we wonder if there are "aliens among us". Then, our Christian history and reputation doesn't seem to help matters by burning witches at the stake, or being so merciless and brutal like some of our "Holy Crusades." Even today if we run into others whose lifestyles do not meet our approval (and of course we are raised on the premise: I read the King James and I love my country"), then it is deemed necessary to do whatever means we have to to eliminate such an opposing force.
My personal "pet pieve" in our daily practice to live for Him, are the ones that condemn those who "smoke, drink, or chew; or go with girls that do" train of thought. Some of those "pointing out these particular sins" are looking at you square in the eyes...all 400 lbs. of them while "pounding down a brownie". Really? And consuming 3-4 lbs. of sugar daily is ok?
And yet...fear is a major contributor to our "pointing fingers at others".
Christ Jesus seems to be very aware of man's fear...on any level. Depending on your Bible version of choice, Jesus seems to make a similar opening remark to His friends with this conotation between 100 to 125 times... before His Resurrection. The conotaton I refer to is: "Fear not", or "Do not be afraid". Equally interesting is after His Great Resurrection...His opening remarks often started with these words: "My Peace I leave with you..."
I have read where our faith in Him will cancel out our fear, and I am sure there is an element of truth in that...including Scripture to confirm it.
As for me, 1 John 4:17-18 is clear on what drives fear (of any kind) from our lives.
I John is one of those letters in the Sacred Scriptures that actually does not state who wrote it. Tradition has given the credit to one of "The Originals", the Apostle John, and he wrote this letter to encourage those who have embraced Him...that being the Lord Jesus Christ!
( Hey, that would be cool!! Instead of asking others if they "are saved", how about..."Have you embraced Him?")...well, it was just an idea.
Anyway...here is a Gleaning of 1 John 4:17-18
" As we embrace His love for us, it allows our love to grow and find harmony in Him. By learning to do this, fear..like in the Day of Judgment...will not be in our presence when He arrives.
His love does not include fear...in fact, if He finds fear in us...He throws it out...with force! We cannot have 2 masters living in our hearts: 1) the love of His Presence and 2) the fear of being rejected by Him. In fact, when we initially embrace Him...He banishes fear from ever entering our hearts again.
Fear is a crippler...and when we find ourselves overwhelmed by the fears of this life...or the fear of death...or the fear of the "Ultimate Rejection", being rejected by Him; then we need to open our hearts to Him a little more, and embrace even more of His love for us!"
"Every fear...has no place...at the sound...of His Great Name"
This one man tells of how one night a large mirror in their home fell off the wall and came to the floor with a thunderous crash, shattering the mirror itself and breaking a piece of furniture below it. For the next 6 months the man would wake in his sleep, sweating and in fear that something else might drop from his bedroom wall or ceiling and kill him while he slept.
Fear can also take on a positive effect. There is the story of the man walking through the cemetery late at night and accidently fell into an open grave that had been prepared for a burial the next day.
He desperately did all he could to climb out of the open grave, but was unable to get the leverage he needed. Finally, after numerous attempts, he simply wore out and decided to sleep until morning and wait until someone would arrive to help him.
The first man who had fell in the grave had awoke about a 1/2 hour before dawn, and decided to give it some more tries to climb out of the grave, and began jumping up and down in an effort to get a hold of something that he might pull himself up and out of the grave.
The second man, now keenly aware there was someone else in the open gravesite with him, watched as the first man made numerous but vain attempts. Finally, the 2nd man said to the 1st man (who also was not aware someone else in the grave with him) in a rather "sleepy deep voice": "You will not be able to get out of here that way."
But...he did!
Fear does have the capability of increasing your adrenaline...and it has the power to tie your stomach up in "knots". The age old equation: Fear + Failure = Anxiety, seems to be alive and well today.
The word "fear" in the Greek comes from the word "phobos". Fear then can be categorized as a phobia, which in the english definition means: to have an anxiety disorder that is accompanied by a persistent fear (often a person, and object, or a situation).
There is great resources to the "world of fear and it's origins", but 3 of the most basic types of fear seem to be:
1) Specific phobia: a fear of spiders, snakes, or water for example.
2) Agoraphobia: fear of leaving home or familiar scenes.
3) Social phobia: fear of being with others...in a variety of scenarios.
Personally, I think our own Christian "religion" has made a mess for people that honestly are wanting to be freed from their fears.
My personal "pet pieve" in our daily practice to live for Him, are the ones that condemn those who "smoke, drink, or chew; or go with girls that do" train of thought. Some of those "pointing out these particular sins" are looking at you square in the eyes...all 400 lbs. of them while "pounding down a brownie". Really? And consuming 3-4 lbs. of sugar daily is ok?
And yet...fear is a major contributor to our "pointing fingers at others".
I have read where our faith in Him will cancel out our fear, and I am sure there is an element of truth in that...including Scripture to confirm it.
As for me, 1 John 4:17-18 is clear on what drives fear (of any kind) from our lives.
I John is one of those letters in the Sacred Scriptures that actually does not state who wrote it. Tradition has given the credit to one of "The Originals", the Apostle John, and he wrote this letter to encourage those who have embraced Him...that being the Lord Jesus Christ!
( Hey, that would be cool!! Instead of asking others if they "are saved", how about..."Have you embraced Him?")...well, it was just an idea.
Anyway...here is a Gleaning of 1 John 4:17-18
" As we embrace His love for us, it allows our love to grow and find harmony in Him. By learning to do this, fear..like in the Day of Judgment...will not be in our presence when He arrives.
His love does not include fear...in fact, if He finds fear in us...He throws it out...with force! We cannot have 2 masters living in our hearts: 1) the love of His Presence and 2) the fear of being rejected by Him. In fact, when we initially embrace Him...He banishes fear from ever entering our hearts again.
"Every fear...has no place...at the sound...of His Great Name"
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