Most Americans are familiar with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s famous statement, “All we have to fear is fear itself.” FDR was very familiar with fear. As a college student he struggled to overcome his great fear of public speaking. Then when polio struck him and paralyzed his legs, he faced a new fear that stayed with him for the rest of his life. He became deathly afraid of being trapped in a burning building and not being able to get out because of his handicap.
Fear is a powerful emotion and that makes it a powerful weapon in the hands of the enemy. We live in an age of terrorists whose threats and actions are designed to create extreme fear. They know once fear controls us, in a very real sense, they have gained control of our lives as well. Every dictator the world has known has use fear to gain and maintain power over their citizens. A lot of times we fear the unknown or something that might happen tomorrow or in the future. Research has shown that most of those things we fear never actually happen and the ones that do take place are not nearly as bad as our imagination made them out to be, but even when our fear is unfounded, it can still cause us to react irrationally.
This winter we have experienced a lot of bugs going around including; colds, flu, bronchitis and pneumonia affecting families and groups of all ages. In a way, fear can be a contagious disease too. When we are around fearful people we begin to show the symptoms of fear; becoming over cautious and even a little paranoid. How can we protect ourselves from this sickness?
When we are already suffering from fear we need an antidote and the best one I know is God’s perfect love. As the Apostle John wrote in one of his letters, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.” (1 John 4:18) The only one worth fearing is God who has both our body and our soul in His hands. When we are adopted into God’s family through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we no long need to fear God’s judgement. Jesus died in our place and has paid the penalty for our sins.
Once we are free from fear, what we need are regular inoculations of God’s love that will prevent fear from reentering our life. A weekly shot of worship will not do the trick. It will take a daily dose of prayer and devotional Bible study. Maybe a good place to start would be 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.”