Proverbs 30:25 The fear of man brings a snare. But who ever trusts in the Lord shall be safe.
Fear and trust. How do we see these two concepts played out in our lives? Webster’s states that fear is emotion experienced in the presence of threat or danger, or a state of dread or awe. Let’s look at some examples of the first definition. There are several examples of man’s fear and God’s sovereignty. In Genesis chapter 12, God tells Abraham to leave his country Haran where he lived with his wife and extended family and go to a land God would show him. God even gave him a blessing that he would be the father of many nations and all who would bless him would be blessed and all who cursed him would be cursed. He was in Canaan when there was a famine so he decided to go to Egypt. There he was afraid of man. He was fearful they would kill him to get to his wife for she was very beautiful. Here the trust he had in God to go in the first place was gone and replaced by fear. God is sovereign still and worked on pharaoh through various plagues to not take Sarah as his wife even though Abraham had told him she was his sister. God was still in the situation, took care of the situation and ultimately accomplished the original purpose for the trip by putting Abraham back on track despite his fear despite the snare.
In Genesis chapter 20, Abraham was once again in fear and out of trust in the Lord. He and his family traveled to Gerar where he had the same fear that they would kill him for his wife, so told King Abimelech that she was his sister. Not trusting God and His sovereignty, protection, faithfulness, taking Him at His word, Abraham lied. In fear and out of trust, still God is gracious and kind, full of compassion, not willing that any man should perish but all come to repentance-to change their mind about God. God was putting Abraham through just that so the bigger issue later of sacrificing Isaac came more readily because Abraham understood the character and nature of God. God loves us so much that even after this second time God worked through the King by his wife and servants being barren, but after dealing with Abraham God blessed the King and they all bore children.
God’s will, will be done despite of and even in the midst of our fear, unbelief, and chaos, God is sovereign praise God. Even when we are faithless, God is faithful ever still. “A righteous man falls seven times but gets up again” states Proverbs 24:16. Then goes on to say “but the wicked shall fall by calamity.” We fall but God is still loving us, leading us, getting us back on track, whereas the wicked have no hope. This is why the Psalms rejoice by proclaiming: “Whenever I am afraid I will trust in You. In God(I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust: I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?” Psm.56:3-4, and Psm 27:1 “The Lord is my light and my salvation: Whom shall I fear? The lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?”
Peter had fallen and was afraid of man in the courtyard as they were beating Jesus, he was watching and a woman spotted him and accused him of being with Jesus. Peter was so afraid of the crowd coming after him for the same punishment that Jesus was enduring that he denied knowing Jesus to all. Fear is not having faith in God. Not trusting in the one true and living God that can rescue you, restore you, comfort you. Peter knew Jesus as well as anyone could, he even boasted not much earlier of never denying and even dying with Jesus. Fear is a powerful thing. Paul cried out “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Rom.7:24. He knew the only answer is Jesus. The only way to live is through the finished work of the cross. The only way to faith is Calvary.
All these are examples of fear of man. But what should we really fear? Webster’s second definition of fear is a state of dread or awe. Awe is mingled reverence, dread and wonder. We should only fear God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Prov. 9:10. Over and over again in the old testament the fear of God was the rule. To walk by faith and not by sight is fearing God, trusting God expecting Him to be sovereign and taking care of every and all things in our life. Cast your care on Him because he cares for you. God told Abraham not to fear, Moses not to fear, the prophets not to fear. Even the angels told every man they encountered not to fear or be afraid of them, but to only fear and worship God. God wants all our attention, devotion and eyes on him and off of man and our circumstances. Just as the serpent was lifted up in the desert for Moses and the Israelites to be healed if they were to look at it and it only, so is Jesus. “ If I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all peoples to Myself” said Jesus( John12:32). If we get our eyes off of man and on Jesus then we see what is important what there is to fear, to be in awe of, to look at with reverence, and dread and wonder. A holy, perfect, just God who loves us and wants nothing less than for us to know Him and how much He loves us.
Jesus told us “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell.” Matt.10:28. Deut. 6:1-2 “This is the commandment… that you may fear the Lord your God to obey all His statutes and His commandments which I command you , your son and your grandson all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged.” Jesus fulfilled this on the cross with His shed blood for us. Matt 5:17 “do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophet. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.” The Psalms speaks of us fearing God and putting the fear of God in our enemies. Psm 2:11-12 again fear and trust “ Serve the Lord with fear…blessed are all those who put their trust in Him.” Psm 115:11 “You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and shield.” My personal favorite scripture when I feel in fear and out of trust is Psm 118:6 “The Lord is on my side, I will not fear , what can man do to me?” which is quoted again in Heb 13:6.
Thomas a Kempis in “ The Imitation of Christ” wrote “Do not place much confidence in weak and mortal man…..place all your trust in God. Let Him be your fear and your love. He will answer you. He will do what is best for you. You will find apart from Him that nearly all the trust you place in men is a total loss.” When all the people who followed Jesus left out of fear of what would happen to them, Jesus asked Peter if he was going to leave too and he said “Lord to whom shall we go, You have the words of eternal life.”John 6:68. Where really could we go, Jesus supplies our every need and knows us better than we know ourselves.
But how do we develop this kind of fear in God? 1John 4:18 “ Perfect love casts out all fear.” 2Tim.1:7 “ God did not give us a spirit of fear but of love power and a sound mind.” God is love John tells us and we can even know it to be true in our own lives over and over again. Just as the hymn goes “leaning on the everlasting arms” this is what we must do every minute of every day. Turn our eyes upon Jesus, look full into his face, the face of amazing grace, mercy,love. Meditate on Him, this builds trust, you can only trust someone you know, get to know Jesus the lover of your soul.
Why is this important to me? I was an alcoholic for 18 years since I was 15 with my first drink. I have always been afraid of people and the alcohol and drugs were my crutch to get past the pain I had in my heart. God delivered me completely 16 years ago and put my dependency on Him. Before I could only sing and perform on drugs or alcohol but now have been playing to more people more often than I ever have in all my life thanks to the cross of Christ. To the all sufficient One who knows my every need even before I do. The freedom God has given me is supernatural and more addictive than any substance this world could ever produce. His perfect love did cast out all my fear. Still fear of man keeps me from doing so much more I know I can do so I walk by faith and hope and trust in the living God to still be sovereign in my life and that when I am faithless He is faithful ever still He cannot deny Himself (2Tim 2:13). I pray, read the Word and get to know God to the deepest and best of my ability, as He reveals himself to me piece by piece, as much as I can take as much as He allows. And I learn to trust, to wait, and to hope in Him and Him alone. Proverbs 3:5 : Trust in the Lord and lean not on your own understanding.” I am learning that when I have fear of a situation or person and that fear is keeping me from doing what I know God has called me to do I must overcome evil with good and fear with trust. Ultimately what can man do to me, it is far better to depart from here and be with the Lord as Paul had said (Phil. 1:23) and I agree. I know there will be many times that God will put me into situations that I may be afraid just as he has in the past but if I know He has called me to do it then I know I can trust Him for the outcome. The battle is not ours but the Lord, therefore be of good courage, greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Without the trials there is no growth but we never need to fear, He never leaves us or forsakes us He is with us always even to the end of the age, amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment