What are things that may make us fearful? For us, the future could be something that we are fearful of, the bad things that may happen to me tomorrow, next week, next year. Or evil; Or being alone; Or no one cares or understands; or we seem far away from other people; Even illness, sicknesses I have now or fear I will get in the future; Or being a failure at work, in relationships, with friends; Or maybe you’re studying in an MBA program and not achieving what you expect or others expect of yourself; Or the fear of not having enough money, whether you’ll meet your EMI payments; Losing your job; Having to make important decisions; Or fear of other people, not wanting to be too close to them. Maybe they’ll find out your weaknesses and find out that you’re exposed. Fear of appraisals; or not finding someone to marry; or will you get a promotion; will you meet boss’s expectations or company’s expectations; fear of being criticized. There are so many reasons why we can be fearful.
The important thing is not that we are fearful but how do we handle fear. Because a lot the issues that come up are triggers that cause us to be fearful and fear is an emotion which comes up whether we like it or not. The key is how we handle it. The main way to handle fear is to face up to it. What are we afraid of? What are we worrying about? It’s important to find out exactly what we are afraid of. Try to understand where it started. Sometimes when we face a problem, it doesn’t seem so bad. If we’re able to say, ‘ok, this is what I’m fearful of, what are the pros and cons?’ Then it doesn’t seem as bad as it sounded or seemed to be in your mind. And perhaps tomorrow, the problem may seem even less. Remember, somebody once said: ‘Today is the tomorrow that you spent your time worrying about yesterday’. So face your fears.
The other way is to talk to somebody. Find someone who you can trust and share how you feel. Sometimes we allow fear to intimidate us and immobilize us to the point where we can’t do anything and that’s because we can’t share our fears with others. Find someone, a friend that you can talk to and tell them exactly what is going on in your life. Or even just look at yourself and see whether you are responsible for the fear that envelops you. Maybe you’ve grown up in a place where other people were always worrying and so you took on that negative characteristic. You always look at a cup and said it’s half empty. But maybe you need to look at it today and say the cup is half full. So look at yourself.
But I think above all of these things, the thing that is going to be able to help us to handle fear is to recognize that we are not alone. Many of these problems result from us feeling alone in this world. We feel we are out of control of our lives, at the mercy of so many things. What we need is a someone or something bigger that our problem or worries. We’ve been talking each week and saying, ‘God is that person in our lives.’ As we go to work as we meet so many different situations and complexities in our lives, is there someone I can turn to who can bring me wisdom, stability, handle fear? And the answer is yes. Faith is that integral part that allows us to handle fear. We must have a faith that is strong. Dr. E. Stanley Jones says this about the relationship between faith and fear. “I am inwardly fashioned for faith. I am made for faith, not for fear. Fear is not my native land or my native language. Faith is. I am so made that worry and anxiety are sand in the machinery of my life, but faith is the oil. I live better by faith and confidence than by fear, doubt and anxiety. In anxiety and worry, my being is gasping for breath. But in faith and confidence, I breathe freely. The only thing that conquers fear is faith in God.
Dr. John Macarthur adds just another dimension. “There are basically 2 causes of fear. One is a guilty conscience; the other is a lack of trust.” Two things that can cause fear. All the other things that we talked about fall into these 2 categories. There’s something that you’ve done wrong in your life that you haven’t dealt with, then you feel that you have a right to be punished or you’re afraid that someone may find out. Or you’re afraid because you don’t thing God can handle your situation. You either have a guilty conscience or you have a lack of faith.
If you have a guilty conscience, you need to handle it immediately. Confess it, talk about it. I’ll never forget the day a man walked into my office. He gave me a letter and I could see from his face that it was the end of the world for him. I had never seen him like that. I opened the letter and inside was a letter and a check. The check was his salary and the letter said that this was the last salary that the company would make to him because he had been involved in committing a particular fraud to the company that there was zero tolerance to. And this was about 9 years ago. I remember looking at him, he was crest-fallen. He said that his union was willing to take it up and fight for him. And I asked him a question, ‘Did you do it?’ He said, “Yes, I did.” I said, “What is the union asking you to do?” He said, “The union is telling me to say I didn’t do it.” I said, “If you want God to help you in this situation, you have to stand for truth. You have to say you did it.” He said, “If I say I did it, I’m done.” I said, “You’re done, anyway. You have to, if God is going to work on your behalf. You have to be in the light. God works in the light, in openness.” You know, my friends, he went from my office and told the union that he was going to say that he did it. They laughed at him. But somehow it went up to a manager who was curious to see why a man, who was in this position, would not fight it with lies but would fight it with truth. And today that man is reinstated, fully, completely. So if there is something in your life that is causing you fear for something you’ve done, deal with it openly, honestly, in the truth.
But if it’s lack of faith, I want you to hear these verses from the Bible that I believe will encourage you. Matthew 6:34 Do not be troubling yourself about tomorrow. Tomorrow will have it’s own trouble. Today’s trouble is enough for today.
John 14:1 Do not let anything trouble your heart. Jesus says you believe in God and you must believe in me also.
John 10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness.
Again in the Bible, “Turn all your troubles over to Him because He cares for you and is watching over you.
Psalm 118:6 The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me?
In 56:11 In God I trust. I shall not be afraid. what can man do to me?
Solid assurances from God saying we’re not alone. You’re not alone, whatever situation you’re facing. You need not have a spirit of fear.
Martin Niemohler, a German, had this kind of a spirit. In 1934, Adolph Hitler summoned German church leaders to his Berlin office and began to berate them for insufficiently supporting his programs. Martin Neimohler was a pastor in his church, and he explained that he was concerned only for the welfare of the church and of the German people. Hitler snapped. “You confine yourself to the church,” he said, “I’ll take care of the German people.” And Neimohler replied, “You said that I will take care of the German people? But we too, as Christians and church members, have a responsibility to the German people. That responsibility was entrusted to us by God. And neither you nor anyone in this world has the power to take it from us.” Hitler listened in silence. That evening his Gestapo raided Neimohler’s house. He was watched by Secret Service and a bomb went off a couple of days later. He survived but was soon arrested and placed in solitary confinement. His trial began on Feb 7, 1938 and as he was being taken through a series of underground passages towards the courtroom, he was overcome with terror and loneliness. What would become of him, his family and his church? What tortures awaited them all? The guard’s face was impassive – he was silent as stone. But as they exited a tunnel to ascend a final flight of stairs, Neimohler heard a whisper. At first, he didn’t know where it came from. The voice was as soft as a sigh. Then he realized that the officer was breathing into his ear the words of Proverbs 18:10 “The name of the Lord is a strong tower, and the righteous run to it and they are safe.”
The Bible says, and I want to close with this, in Mathew 7. Two men built homes. One of them built his home on a rock. The winds came, the waves came, the storm clouds came, but the house stood firm. Another man, the foolish builder, built his house on the sand. And when the winds came and adversity struck, the rains came, the house fell down. And Jesus said, “The wise man is the one who heard my words and listened to them.”
I want to ask you this morning, “Are you willing to take those words and say, I will not let fear overcome and debilitate me? I’m going to let faith handle the situation.” There’s a story in the Bible about Peter. If you’ve read anything of the New Testament, Peter was one of Jesus’ disciples. The story says that the disciples were crossing over in a boat across the Sea of Galilee, and there was a storm. And suddenly out of the night they saw the figure of Jesus walking towards them. Peter looked at Jesus and said, “Jesus, if it is you, tell me also to come to you, to walk on the water.” And Jesus says, “Come.” Peter jumped out and began to walk to Jesus on the water. Remember Peter was a fisherman and suddenly he was walking over every situation that used to have control over him. Then, the Bible says, that he suddenly looked around and saw the clouds and the waves, the wind was howling, and he became frightened. And the moment he began to be frightened, he sank. He shouted out to Jesus and Jesus picked him up immediately. But here’s the thought. As long as his eyes were on Jesus, as long as he was looking towards God, he was able to walk over every situation and circumstance that had always controlled him. When he took his eyes off God, he fell. I want to encourage you this morning. Whatever situation is facing you, whatever is causing you fear or anxiety or worry, will you look to God so that He will handle your situation? Will you trust Him when He says to you, “I will not leave you, I will not forsake you.” There’s a familiar song that I love to sing.
“I do not know what lies ahead, and the way I cannot see.
But one who stands near to be my guide, He’ll show the way to me.
I know He holds the future, and I know He holds my hand.
With God, things just don’t happen. Everything by Him is planned.
And as I face tomorrow with its problems large and small.
I’ll trust the God of miracles, give to Him my all.”
In closing, ‘the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid’. As Alexander MacClaren would say, only she or he who can say the Lord is the strength of my life, can then say, of whom shall I be afraid? God is the strength of your life, beloved. He is the one who is stable, the rock on which you can build your home, your life. He is the one who will take you above the situation which made you worry or fear. The question is will you trust him today?
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