Two Responses To Fear
Word-Of-The-Day: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He (Jesus) who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23)
We encounter our problems either by ignoring them and hope they go away, or we confront our problems and work to resolve them. I have had several posts regarding how we should face our problems using God’s wisdom and strength to determine how we can best deal with the issues we face on a daily basis.
However, we sometimes also have to deal with the feeling of fear or trepidation as an addendum coming with the issue. It could be facing someone who is anti-Christian, or having mechanical problems with a car. There can be a realized fear with us getting challenged by the anti-Christian in a belligerent fashion, or in our inability or lack of mechanical aptitude to fix the car.
Fear has two meanings. F-E-A-R can stand for “Forget Everything And Run”; this is what we typically see portrayed in Halloween movies and TV shows (unfortunately it’s the season that we’re currently in) where someone gets surprised or scared, and while forgetting decorum screams at the top of their lungs (high-pitched) and jumps back, then runs away (usually into some trap, or trips and falls, etc.).
For many professing Christians in everyday life, this can be more subtle. We can be faced with a bad situation (job loss, health issue, family crisis), and in fear we either forget about God or we blame God for our situation. In fear we turn and run away from God, the one who we profess Faith, the one we say can resolve all issues and will stand with us in times of trouble. Instead, we run away from God, scared and by our actions scream out that we can’t help ourselves, or even God can’t help us.
But the other meaning of F-E-A-R is we “Face Everything And Rise”. This is also portrayed in movies and TV shows, usually the hero who despite being scared, overcomes all odds and withstands the withering gunfire, explosions, and nifty special effects; the hero refuses to retreat but stands his or her ground until the very end. For us professing Christians it is fortunately not as dramatic in most circumstances as the movie version.
When we are faced with a bad situation, dramatic or not, we do experience fear but instead of running away from God we need to run to Christ and with Him having our ‘six’ (our backs) we can face whatever is standing in front of us. We get the books out to order the part and look at a YouTube video to figure out how fix our car, or we ask the Pastor or an Elder to accompany us to witness to the Anti-Christian, to learn how to face someone who may be belligerent to us for our Faith.
This doesn’t mean that in all cases of Face Everything And Rise we stand toe-to-toe and fight to the end. Discretion and wisdom sometimes dictates there are times to step away, retreat and rethink how to best confront our issues. It may not be for us to fix our car but better for a trained mechanic to do so, for example. Some problems require subtle, indirect approaches with a lot of prayer involved, and not direct confrontation. Sometimes, though, we must stand toe-to-toe and face issues head on.
Remember Goliath of Gath; one of the five remaining ‘Nephilim’ or giants and holding the World Undisputed Heavyweight Championship belt at that time, Goliath was the ‘Mike Tyson’ of his day. Everyone who fought him lost and lost badly. Goliath, fighting for Philistine, would repeatedly insult and taunt the Israelites and call them out; “Your mothers wear Army boots and they smell like motor oil! Come and fight me!” (I have no idea what insults he would have tossed out there, but it was likely something similar to my supposition.)
For forty days Goliath taunted the Israelites with his insults. King Saul and his men had great fear of Goliath and all of them turned away from God in fear, and hid whenever Goliath came out to throw out his daily taunts. The Israelites (especially Saul) had the ‘Forget Everything and Run’ type of fear. (1 Samuel 17:8-11)
But, one Godly young man, a small ‘ruddy’ boy named David, probably in his early teens, came up to the front lines, to deliver some grain and bread to his brothers and some cheese to their commander. (Today we would call that a ‘care package’ from home.) David comes up to the line, delivers the stuff, and sees what’s happening and can’t believe it.
David remembers that, in Faith that was promised to him by God, he was able to fight and protect His sheep from lions and bears. David tells Saul that he, with God at his side, can take on Goliath. Saul, terrified, says to David, “Go for it.”
David gets five stones (one for Goliath and each of his brothers), and although likely having fear, has the ‘Face Everything and Rise’ type of fear and stands in front of Goliath. It looked like a great mismatch; likely a 5-foot-zero, 100-pound David versus a 10-foot-2-inch, 500-pound Goliath. Goliath had a shield-barer in front of him, and his spear and sword were each likely equal or greater to the height and weight of David.
The bookmakers in Las Vegas likely didn’t even place odds for anyone to bet on this fight. But David, without armor and only a sling, had something Goliath did not see; namely his understanding of God-math: David plus God = Undefeatable power.
David swings his sling, with a stone in it, and lets it go. The rock smacks Goliath, and the stone is driven into Goliath’s forehead, killing him instantly. (1 Samuel 17:12-50). David beat Goliath that day by following the principle of Hebrews 10:23 that day (even though it hadn’t been written yet).
David held onto the Hope that he professed, the Hope and the Faith that the God who promised He would be faithful to His people would indeed be Faithful and have his back. David’s fear was conquered and his troubles were vanquished, not by a stone but by His Faith and allowing God to take control of his situation.
