Fear has power. It’s ability to reinvent is comparable only to the force of nature. Fear is able to change momentum, redirect confidence, sabotage faith, conceive doubt, hijack control and freeze freedom.
I’m reminded of a beautiful spring day at a Tennessee wilderness creek. It was a supremely perfect day. Just the right amount of sun through the trees to warm your back while following the rushing water upstream and pausing on occasion to witness it’s power cascading over boulders left behind from something far bigger than myself. On this particular day I chose to get a bit closer than usual to nature. With a number of good sized rocks scattered beyond the shoreline into the rushing water it only seemed right to hop from one to another. The air smelled of adventure and then time seemed to freeze. Oddly however, it all happened in a split second and yet, lasted what felt like a lifetime. As I left the security of one rock to land on the next, my eyes caught glimpse of a water moccasin warming himself on the likes of the rock I had intended to land. But I was already in motion, in the air with no way to “change my mind.” Yet, in some odd unexplainable way, I changed my mind, changed my direction and needed to change my shorts! I landed on a completely different rock out of harms way. Fear changed my momentum, redirected my confidence, sabotaged my faith, gave birth to doubt, hijacked my control and froze my freedom in mid-air.
It’s easy to talk about fear when it comes to snakes . . . who doesn’t freak out? But when fear creeps into our lives through relationships, emotions, finances, careers and circumstances, it behaves in very similar ways. And yet, Jesus tells us to fear not!
I’m reminded in scripture the account of Jesus asleep on the boat as the disciples begin to panic over the storm that threatens to bring disaster. Jesus asks, “where is your faith?”
The sick woman who touched Jesus’ garment was called to reveal herself. Full of fear and trembling she fell at Jesus’ feet. Yet Jesus tells her, “. . . Go in peace and be freed . . . ”
David, a boy with only three stones faces a giant bully — but fear has no power!
Faith in knowing the Truth brings fear to it’s knees. It thaws the grip fear has on the soul to do what is right and affirms the power of the Spirit who lives within to “go in peace and be freed!” It is through the greater power of the Spirit of God that overcomes anxiety in messed up and broken relationships, that conquers unleashed emotions, that answers the questions of why and what if, that gives the solution to how. It sees through the fog of soured circumstances to see that God is in control and that His promises stand true to the end . . . that He is glorified!
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Romans 8:5