65510 10. Fear: From Doubt to Dread

Fuss and feverishness, anxiety, intensity, intolerance, instability, pessimism and wobble, and every kind of hurry and worry—these, even on the highest levels,” declared spiritual writer Evelyn Underhill, “are signs of the self-made and self-acting soul; the spiritual parvenu.”1

A parvenu is someone who has been raised to a new position but has not yet acquired the manner of it. Becoming a child of God certainly qualifies as being given a high position. Are you acting like a parvenu child of God (whether or not you really are new to the faith) because you cannot warm the cold region of fear in your soul?

Certain Christians circle back again and again to the same place of fear or anxiety, whether it relates to their health, their family, their finances, or whatever else may be troubling them. Some fear may be natural and acceptable. But living in fear because you refuse to move on is another matter: it is sin. A person can have a sinful fear habit just as surely as an immorality habit or a drunkenness habit.

The problem, to use Underhill’s terminology, is our “self-made and self-acting soul.” If we are not trusting in God’s care for us, we naturally react to our circumstances by trying to figure out how we can meet our own needs. It is a kind of homegrown providence, and it will never do. We know inside that we will never be capable of anticipating all the situations we may face. If we attempt to cut our way out of all the problems that may entangle us, we get stuck in a round of anxiety and dread.

We (Bill and Henry) have had our own times of fear and worry, and so we are empathetic to others who are fearful. However, we are not content merely to make people feel better by helping them cope with their worry. We would rather help them get past the anxiety or the fear altogether. And that means dealing with the sin that lies at the root. Where circumstances might naturally inspire worry, we want Christ’s followers to renew their trust in God and move on in confidence of His care.

If you have a fear habit, letting go of your fear and trusting God completely might seem like an impossibility. So let us assure you with Scripture that it is possible to substitute faith for the anxiety and the worry you are presently feeling.

FEAR AND GOD

Susie outwardly seemed to be a well-poised young wife and mother with everything under control. She was active in her church and attended other Christian gatherings during the week. But secretly she was filled with fears from which psychologists and psychiatrists were unable to free her.

“What can I do?” she asked me (Bill) through her tears. “I have everything to live for and no real reason to be afraid, but I am consumed with worry and dread. I anticipate all kinds of evil things happening to me, my husband, and my children.” “Do you believe that God in heaven has the power to remove your fears, Susie?” I asked.

“Yes, I believe that,” she replied.

To reinforce her belief, I read Psalm 34:4 to her.

I prayed to the LORD, and He answered me,
He freed me from all my fears.

Then I asked her if she wanted to join with me in a prayer of faith to ask God to deliver her from her fears as He had delivered the psalmist. She agreed. So together we prayed. Though she experienced no immediate deliverance, with the passing of days, God set Susie free from fear.

Can you relate to Susie? What are your fears about? Be assured that others have had them before you.

Do you fear other people? So did ten of the twelve spies whom Moses sent into the Promised Land to scout out the opposition. This was their report to Moses: “The people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified…. We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” (Numbers 13:28, 31).

Are you afraid of something bad coming at you from what appears a cold and impersonal nature? The disciples felt the same way when a storm came up as they were sailing in a boat. They woke Jesus and cried out, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” (Matthew 8:25).

The timid spies and the frightened disciples both received criticism from God for their faithlessness. God complained to Moses, “How long will these people treat Me with contempt? Will they never believe Me, even after all the miraculous signs I have done among them?” (Numbers 14:11). Jesus said to His disciples, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” (Matthew 8:26).

Disbelief of God is a sin, and non-Christians are not the only ones who have a problem with this sin. Though we are saved, we Christians, too, may doubt God’s promises to care for us. Such disbelief lies at the root of our ungodly instances of fear.

It is a truism that most of what we fear never comes to pass. And even when bad things do happen (certainly people do face some serious problems sometimes), God is still in control. This is when we need the faith to believe that God is in control. There is no cause to give in to fear.

Well, that’s not quite right. There is one kind of fear we should cultivate: the fear of God. Jesus warned, “Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:28). This sort of fear is a compound of awe and reverence.

Oswald Chambers said, “The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else.” If you have too many of the wrong kinds of fear, maybe you need to get more of the right kind: fear of God. This godly fear comes from recognizing who God really is and deciding to trust in Him.

COURAGE TO WALK ON WATER

The Bible is full of encouragement for the fearful. These are just a few examples:

  • The Lord said to Abram in a vision, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great” Genesis 15:1).
  • “Don’t be afraid,” he said, “for you are very precious to God. Peace! Be encouraged! Be strong!” (Daniel 10:19).
  • The angel who came to Mary to preview the birth of the Lord said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “foryou have found favor with God!” (Luke 1:30).2

Does it seem reasonable to trust God because of who He is? Or does it seem crazy? George MacDonald wrote, “This is a wise, sane Christian faith: that a man commit himself, his life, and his hopes to God; that God undertakes the special protection of that man; that therefore that man ought not to be afraid of anything.”

The apostle Peter had a chance to exhibit what MacDonald assures us is a “sane” faith. The disciples were in a boat, struggling against a headwind to bring their boat to shore when the following happened:

About three o’clock in the morning Jesus came toward them, walking on the water. When the disciples saw Him walking on the water, they were terrified. In their fear, they cried out, “It’s a ghost!” But Jesus spoke to them at once. “Don’t be afraid,” He said. “Take courage. I am here!”

Then Peter called to him, “Lord, if it’s really you, tell me to come to you, walking on the water.”

“Yes, come,” Jesus said.

So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he saw the strong wind and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink.“Save me, Lord!” he shouted.

Jesus immediately reached out and grabbed him. “You have so little faith,” Jesus said. “Why did you doubt Me?” When they climbed back into the boat, the wind stopped. —Matthew 14:25–32

Peter represents any follower of Christ who has a problem with fear. We know we should trust God, and we even make efforts at acting courageously, but, then our faith falters, and we fear again. Are you ready to put one foot in front of the other and walk across the water to Jesus?

Neil Anderson wrote, “Fear is like a mirage in the desert. It seems so real until you move toward it, then it disappears into thin air. But as long as we back away from fear, it will haunt us and grow in size like a giant.”3 Whatever your fear may be, move toward it—and toward Christ—in faith.

“God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self–discipline” (2 Timothy 1:7 NASB). We need not live with fear, nor must we give in to worry or anxiety.

AN ANXIOUS HEART

You might not describe your problem as fear. You might think worry or anxiety describes it better. Sometimes you might not even be sure what you are anxious about. Or, you might have feelings of apprehension that do not rise to the level of fear, though they are troublesome enough. Persistent worry or anxiety is another condition that Christians need not and should not live with.

Meredith tended to worry about what other people thought of her. Her anxiety was particularly intense at work as she constantly wondered how to present herself at meetings or second-guessed what she had said in a conversation. The problem got so intense that Meredith turned to counseling.

After doing a little probing, the counselor was surprised to learn that in fact Meredith was doing well at work and was one of the most popular employees in the offi ce. She was in particular known for her tactfulness. So the truth was that Meredith had no good reason for her worries about her reputation. She was anxious for no good reason, and it stole from the peace God wanted her to have.

C. S. Lewis wrote, “Anxiety is not only a pain which we must ask God to assuage but also a weakness we must ask him to pardon—for he’s told us to take no care for the morrow.” Lewis was referring to a famous passage on worry from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Let’s take a look at it.

That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life— whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the fi eld and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fi re tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today. —Matthew 6:25–34

Bible teacher Joyce Meyer says this passage means “we need to concentrate our full attention on today and stop being so intense and wrought up.”

Calm down and lighten up! Laugh more and worry less. Stop ruining today worrying about yesterday or tomorrow—neither of which we can do anything about. We need to stop wasting our precious “now,” because it will never come again.4

If you have a worry problem, we recommend you read Matthew 6:25–34 every day for a month and make it a springboard for prayer.

Life is a day-by-day affair. We do not know all that will happen in the future—but we do not need to. God will be with us in the future just as surely as He is with us in the present. Our part is to develop our trust in Him, leaving fear and anxiety behind in the process.

A SINGLE-MINDED APPROACH TO ENDING ANXIETY

The New Testament word for anxiety means “doubled-minded.” That’s the problem with people who have an anxiety habit. With part of their mind, they are looking to God; but with another part of their mind, they are fretting about what might happen to them.

God desires for them to have their mind wholly fi xed on Him, for then they could know peace. As the prophet Isaiah confessed to God,

You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in You, all whose thoughts are fixed on You! —Isaiah 26:3

But how do we become single-minded, fi xing our thoughts entirely on God? How do we get rid of our anxiety? Not by trying through an act of will to make our worries go away. Rather, by handing them over to God. One psalmist wrote,

Please listen and answer me, for I am overwhelmed by my troubles. —Psalm 55:22

Late in life, the apostle Peter (evidently having learned his lesson when his feet slipped into the waves!) echoed the psalmist in saying, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7).

We give our cares to God through the miracle of prayer. That is why Paul advised, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.”

Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. —Philippians 4:6–7

Instead of trying the useless self-talk of worry, assuring ourselves that things will go wrong, we need to be talking to God about our concerns.

TRUST IN GOD

An old scenario goes this way: fear knocked at the door; faith answered; no one was there. In truth, the answer to worry and fear in all their forms is faith in God.

George Müller, director of a network of orphanages in nineteenth century England, could have wasted much energy worrying about how he would provide for the two thousand orphaned children under his care. But instead he operated on the faith principle. He refused a salary and trusted that his material needs and those of his orphanages would be met entirely by seeking God in prayer. And do you know what? That is just what happened. Müller once said, “The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith; and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.”

Similarly, Neil Anderson defined courage as “making the choice to walk by faith and do what’s right even in the face of fear.” He added, “Being alive and free in Christ doesn’t mean that we will never feel fear. It means that such fears no longer have any power over us if we exercise our faith in God.”5

The Scriptures teach us that “perfect love expels all fear” (1 John 4:18). We acquire such love “as we live in God” (verse 17). This means exercising faith and growing in faith over time. In this way, we can even cease to be “slaves to the fear of dying” (Hebrews 2:15). Imagine that—no fear of death!

Faith is not the risk it seems. Our faith has a solid basis because the One whom we trust is all-powerful and cares about us. We can be free from anxiety and full of joy because, as Philippians 4:5 (NIV) says, “The Lord is near.”

John Edmund Haggai, author of How to Win over Worry, commented on that verse.

A literal translation of Philippians 4:5b shows that the verb is missing—“the Lord near.” No verb was needed. It is abrupt, staccato. It is a bolt of light. The awareness of His nearness gives great calm in the storm and stress of life.

Living in the awareness of that fact brings about a behavioral change that cannot be explained in human terms. It’s often the only major difference between a defeated Christian and a victorious Christian. Fortune may have eluded you. Professional success, which you have sought so laboriously, may have slipped through your fingers. Love may have betrayed you. All these may be true. But the Lord is near! There is no mockery in that statement.6

Do you want more faith that the Lord is near to you for help? If so, you are not alone in that desire. A father who sought Jesus’ healing power for his son said to Jesus, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). The disciples likewise one time appealed to Jesus, “Show us how to increase our faith” (Luke 17:5).

The apostle John wrote, “We are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him. And since we know He hears us when we make our requests, we also know that He will give us what we ask for” (1 John 5:14–15). Surely having faith is in line with God’s will. So if we ask Him for it, He will give it. We’ve got His Word on that.

With the Spirit’s supernatural enabling, you can be a person of greater faith and you can shed your fear habit for good. Let the healing in this area of your life begin now.

SOUL PRESCRIPTION FOR FEAR

Are you struggling with fear, worry, or a related sin habit? We have outlined a five-step process to help you repent and heal in this area of your life. Take all the time you need with each of the steps below.

Step 1: Adopt a Correct View of God

If you are worried, fearful, or despairing, chances are that you are failing to see just how capable and willing God is to keep all His promises to you. Consider these truths:

  • God is faithful; He will always be there for you.
    The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. —Lamentations 3:22–23
  • God is all-powerful, and He uses that power for your good.
    He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. —Isaiah 40:29

Make sure your ideas about God our protector match what He says about Himself in the Bible. Why worry about anything when the Creator of the universe is watching over you?

Step 2: Revise Your False Beliefs

How do ideas about people or life influence your worry-related habit? Your ideas may have gotten off track in a number of different ways, but think about these possibilities:

  • Do you believe that you must pull yourself up by your own bootstraps?
    It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. —2 Corinthians 3:5
  • Do you think of yourself as a born loser in the game of life?
    I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. —Philippians 4:13
  • Do you believe that your circumstances are beyond God’s power to help?
    Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all He has done. —Philippians 4:6

Scan the Bible for its messages about how unnecessary worry really is. Make a conscious decision to identify and abandon any concepts about yourself, others, or life in general that contribute to your worry. Believe God, and trust in His power to meet your every need.

Step 3: Repent of Your Sin

What type of worry-related habit do you have? Is it fear? Is it anxiety? Are you discouraged or nervous or impatient? Make sure you are clear about your specific problem.

If you are prepared to leave your sin behind, pray a prayer of confession and commitment. You may use the prayer below, or you may pray in your own words.

God, I have a problem in the area of __________, and I know it is sin. I know also that my failure to trust You has grieved You. I am sorry for that. Please forgive me for my sin. Cleanse me of it completely now—wash it away as if it had never existed. Give me now the ability to live my life in Your strength and not in mine. Lord, I believe; help me in my unbelief. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

If you have harmed others with your sin, apologize to them. Seek reconciliation and offer restitution where appropriate.

Step 4: Defend against Spiritual Attacks

The last place the enemies of your soul want to see you is at rest in the Lord’s grace. You have put your trust in God; now you must keep it there.

  • Watch out for the false values that the world system entices you to adopt. The world will say you have to take care of yourself, and this will naturally lead to worry. In God’s value system, trust in Him takes the place of self-effort.
  • Watch out for the way your fl esh (that is, your sinful nature)attempts to have you return to that paradoxical feeling of control that comes from worrying about the unknown. When the feeling comes upon you, tell the
    flesh, “You’re already dead! I don’t have to do what you want.” Rely on the Spirit’s help to remain strong in your faith.
  • Watch out for Satan’s schemes to persuade you to worry about your circumstances again. You can resist him with the “shield of faith” that God gives as a part of our spiritual armor (see Ephesians 6:10–18).

Do not expect the temptation to be anxious, fearful, or discouraged to disappear any time soon. Remember that God is bigger than the world, the fl esh, and the Devil. With Him on your side, you are a winner!

Step 5: Flee Temptation

In practical terms, certain situations can “give you an excuse” to worry. So take active steps to prevent returning to your bad habits of the past.

  • Focus on your relationship with God.
    In your personal devotional time, focus on God as your provider and sanctuary. Use the power of praise and thankfulness to bolster your faith in Him.
  • Latch on to God’s promises.
    Many passages in Scripture speak of God’s care for us. Search out ones that give you the most comfort and confidence, then commit them to memory. Here is one to memorize:
    For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.—2 Timothy 1:7
  • Establish safeguards.
    Take practical steps to cut off common sources of temptation.
    These should be strategies tailor-made for you, but here are some examples to get you started thinking:
  • If you begin to feel discouraged, rehearse in your mind the victories that God has given you in the past.
  • If you are feeling fearful about tasks you need to accomplish, break it down into small steps and take them one at a time.
  • If you are prone to nervousness, learn to meditate on God.
  • Ask a trusted Christian friend to hold you accountable for not worrying nor fearing so much.
  • Expect victory.
    God has promised to always take care of you, and He will. Believe that He will enable you to beat the worry habit and build a stronger faith.

Visit www.SoulPrescription.com for more insights and resources, and to download a free leader’s guide for small group Bible studies.