A life of fear is not a happy
life and with fright, soon comes flight. Mwango Lupupa 09/04/2013
There are some things that every wise man or woman, boy or girl can make light of. Fear should not be one of them. Since fear is something we all personally experience at one point, see or witness or hear/read about, I invite you dear readers to contribute what you know about it, particularly the things that people fear and why we, especially Christians, should not fear. However, only post something after you have read my post. And I set the ball rolling!
Somewhere in the year 2012 my mind began to be intensely occupied
by the subject of fear in an investigative or analytical way. Talking to people
is something I do quite a lot and easily, most of the time. So with this
interest and easiness came the desire to try to understand from a different
viewpoint other than that of direct sin, what sometimes or oftentimes
causes/makes people to lie mainly – not to tell the truth but lies, even when
under oath! I discovered it is fear. Is it because life for so many is so
unpredictable that the only thing predictable about life is its
unpredictability? Read on.
I will talk about fear not as one exempted or at an
advantage per say, for I know and feel the horrible tease or harassment and
hideous effects it sometimes would bring upon my own heart. Hardly a week or so
after I became a Christian in December 1994, the reality of being a sinner and
especially impending death brought such fear that I somehow developed stomach
ulcers! Well, the good news is that fear can be faced, tackled and overcome.
But the problem usually is when people do not realize that they are afraid or
refuse or hesitate to face and deal with it in the first place, and
consequently they are swiftly or eventually overcome by this sly enemy. It is
my sincere hope then, seeing, that fear
has no right to any part of us, that we, Christians in
particular, go about a good and lawful warfare, in the name of God, if drive it
out.
Webster defines fear as: A painful emotion or passion excited by an expectation of evil, or the
apprehension of impending danger. Fear is accompanied with a desire to avoid or
ward off the expected evil, he adds. Fear is an uneasiness of mind, upon the thought of future evil likely
to befall us. Fear is the passion of our nature (I and not Webster, will
say after “the fall”) which excites us to
provide for our security, on the approach of evil. It is anxiety; solicitude
(concern, care, worry), which makes us put ourselves first regardless. The Hebrew brings out words like horror
or terror.
Clearly, this is not and cannot be how we Christians are told we should fear
God. He is our dear Father, our friend and we are His co-workers – it is
reverence and honour, and I will not get into that now but I say one thing to
God’s enemies (the unbelievers, non-Christians, the wicked) that they
should ‘fear him who can
destroy both soul and body in hell.’ Mat 10:28. So I will use and talk about it as defined by Webster.
The word fear (+ feared) appears about 443
times from Genesis to Revelation, about 341 times in the Old Testament alone;
while afraid occurs 167 times in the entire Bible and only 39 times
in the New Testament. That’s an average of 6.7 times in each book for fear.
That could be either commanding us to revere and honour the Lord; or saying
that we did/do not do so; or commanding/exhorting us not to actually be
troubled, anxious/worried or be in panic and freeze as though dead, but calm,
bold, confident and focused. God could also be telling to His enemies that they
should be actually troubled, anxious/worried and panic and or saying that they
experienced this. God demands reverence and honour from everyone because He
deserves it, he is worthy of it as the Lord our God, although He does not force
it. And because He is not a tyrant, people disobey thinking they will get away
with it. In Hebrews 11:7 the word reverent
is used with fear to emphasize the great respect of God by Noah. Thus we can
deduce that fear is primarily used in those two senses. I now present to
you at least three major things I know about fear or terror.
Fear Has a
Beginning and is Universal
Fear tracks us like a
bloodhound, from Adam and Eve, and finds us out! It came through the sin of
disobedience by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Gen3. We are told that upon eating of the fruit of the tree from
which God had commanded them not to eat, “the eyes of both of them were opened.
And they knew (realized) that they were naked.” And when “they heard the voice of Jehovah (the
Lord) God walking in the garden in the cool of the day”, it is stated “Adam and
his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God in the middle of the
trees of the garden.” And upon being called out to, Adam responded, “I heard
your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself.” The opening of
their eyes signified opening (awakening) the “eyes” of their consciences and
their hearts condemning them and they feared as a consequence of the sin they
had committed. Their
fear was as real as their realization of what they had done, and of losing
God’s favour, friendship, blessedness and their dominion over (nature and
perhaps particularly) the creatures, and what they opened themselves to,
namely: shame/disgrace, God’s judgment and enmity, and other miseries.
We may perceive it differently and it may appear
in different shades and degrees, but fear is everywhere in the world and is
tacked somewhere in every heart of fallen humanity and in nature, seeking
opportunity for manifestation. The fact that fear is something we all personally experience
at one point or another, something we perceive or witness or hear/read about,
cannot be refuted and does not need a genius to convince us. Its mention numerously
from Genesis (through Abraham and
Isaac, David, the disciples in the New Testament) to Revelation is also enough evidence of its universality; and God’s
ample command or encouragement for us not to fear is proof of its devastating
effects if left free or unchecked. Continued in Part 2!
