We are in a season that celebrates fear. The stores are filled with scary masks and costumes. The TV stations are airing horror movies and thrillers. Our yards and homes are cloaked in the creepy crawly things that haunt people’s dreams.
But in reality… fear isn’t limited to this Halloween season.
Our everyday fear isn’t so much the little things you jump at when they scurry out of the dark corner or slide out from under the bed. The fear I’m talking about isn’t even the panic you feel when a car swerves into your lane and you have to lock up the brakes. That kind of fear is necessary to human survival, because it triggers our fight-or-flight response and causes us to take action! That fear is a natural and good feeling. Without some sense of fear we would make many stupid mistakes, hurting ourselves and others in the process. Without fear, we would not have enough wisdom to flee when true dangers present themselves.
What I’m talking about the fear that paralyzes. The fear of situations, of people and of things over which we have either no control or only limited control. The fear that characterizes itself as worry and anxiety, fruitless and draining… like fear of losing friends or family members, fear of not being able to pay the bills, fear of rejection or fear of losing a job.
And again, there is a difference between trying to avoid these negative things as far as we can, and fearing them… allowing them to overwhelm us, immobilize us, control us or exhaust us.
We live in a society of fearful people. What are some things you are scared of?
We fear what we do not know and what we feel we cannot overcome. Sometimes we don’t even know what we are afraid of.
Yet if we believe that God is ultimately in control, is completely powerful and completely omniscient, and has a perfect plan of salvation for all humanity, then what is there to be afraid of? The Bible shows us that this faith in God as our protector is incompatible with fear. There is nothing physical from which God cannot protect us. And yet we can know this intellectually and still struggle against that deep-seated emotional level of fear.
1 John 4:18 says,
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
As we move from fear and into the love of God, we can replace anxiety with confidence. Fear is dangerous insofar as we let it drive us. We can overcome it by turning to the One who created us and all our emotions… including fear.
Most people associate this Halloween season with fear… fear of death, fear of dying, fear of evil. But when we come to know the true power and trustworthiness of God, many of the fears we have in life melt away.
In 1 John, we are told that perfected love drives out fear. That is to say, when we become certain of God’s love, we don’t have to be afraid anymore. It’s as if God is the parent who comes in at night and tucks us in, turns on the night-light, and tells us that there are no monsters. In God’s great and perfect love, all fear melts away.
We can remove our fears by serving others. When we abandon our lives in service, we often discover that our fears lessen as our friendship and love deepens. As you and I think about our fears now, I hope that we will see that just as God has protected and redeemed those who have come before us, God will protect and redeem us, too!
Tanner Royalty 