On fear

“and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” Hebrew 2 verse 15

This morning I was listening to the book of Hebrew on my bible audio app. I was once again almost late to start working and thus while working from home, but this time I told to myself, I will not start to work without hearing the Word of God. And as I was getting ready while listening to the book of Hebrew, one passage caught my attention “and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death”. I had to stop, not knowing why this passage, those words caught my attention, but I did not have time to think about it as I had to start to work and kind of forgot about it as the day passed by.

“and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death”

Now reading it over and over again, I think what caught my attention was that our fear can hold us in slavery or some will say bondage. There is not a single entity that can remain us in slavery but our thoughts. In March 2020 when I knew God wanted me to move from where I was, I did not want to due to m fear. At that time, I kept on having nightmares about that place. During that season God kept on asking me who was my pharaoh. Who was my pharaoh? At first, I did not understand why he would ask me such a question, but then I realized my fear was my pharaoh and it was preventing me from trusting and obeying God.

How many times do we let our fear dictate our life? Whatever you fear has power over you.

Let's ponder on it… Whatever we fear has power over us. What are your fears?

In 2 Timothy 1:7 it is written “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” Meaning, if we do not do something we know God asked us to do because of our fear, we are operating outside of God’s will. The problem is when we let our fear speak louder than the voice of God, we are no longer walking by faith. In no case I am saying it as a reproach, it is part of our human nature to feel fear or scared to do something, and it is perfectly normal. Fear becomes an issue when fear becomes a hindrance to our walk with God. Thus, fear reflects a lack of trust in who God is and what He can do. We can say that fear distorts our view of who God is. This can be illustrated by the parable of the Talents in Luke 19:11-27 when the servant said he was afraid of the master because he was harsh and that he reaped what he did not sow, to which the master replied in verse 22 “And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant.” Out of his mouth, in his own words, the servant would be judged, then the master added wicked servant… ouch…

I have always been perplexed about this parable. To be honest, I identified myself with the wicked servant because like him far too often I did not act or speak out of fear, the fear was so intense that I felt paralyzed at times, or like something was stuck in my throat preventing me from speaking. I must admit my relationship with God was not what it is today. But even so, I would not have called myself wicked for it. After all, people should have had compassion for me, right? Right?

Now I can understand why the servant was called wicked. Firstly, he disobeyed. In Luke 19:13 it is written, “So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.” Which is translated in my French Bible as fructifying, bearing fruit, and being productive. Therefore, hiding the talent the Master gave to him was direct disobedience to his master. On top of this he justified his disobedience by pointing out the Master’s harshness, he blamed the Master for his act of disobedience! How wicked is that?! no wonder he was called wicked!

How often have we been guilty of that, of not doing what God instructed us to do because we thought we were not good enough and prefer to hide away from God's instruction instead of embracing it and trusting Him? How often did we justify not doing something for God based on God deserving the best, a person that is more skilled or popular than us because indeed God deserves the best from the best people, doesn’t He? and that I ain't me, right? How often did we shy away from God’s instruction?

If God gives you an instruction or sends you to do something, wouldn’t He give you the means to succeed if you rely on Him, and trust Him?

There are two men in the Old Testament I can think of who disobeyed God’s instruction because of fear, Jonas and Saul. I know what you might think Jonas and Saul did not disobey because of fear. Well, Jonas was fearful of God's mercy that He refrained from destroying Nineveh, it is written:

“So he prayed to the LORD, and said, “Ah, LORD, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore, I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving kindness, One who relents from doing harm." Jonas 4:2

For Saul, it was by fear that God would not hold His Word spoken through the prophet Samuel that he decided to act on his own will, in 1 Samuel 13: 8 –14.

Although we do not know what happened to Jonas; when I was little I thought Jonas lost his mind and ended his life as a "crazy man". But we know what happen to Saul, God's anointing departed from him, and he lost his mind and his kingship.

From these diverse accounts from the Bible, we can see the common denominator was the lack of trust in God. Fear can be overcome by being intentional and by deciding to trust God. I do know that it is easier to say than do, but it is not impossible. And if you feel less than others because you have difficulty trusting God, do not. Remember there was a man in the Bible whose son was possessed by an evil spirit. He wanted to have faith and believe that although Jesus's disciple could not help his son, Jesus could. But there was something in him that prevent him from totally believing, and he did that prayer "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief" Mark 9:24 NIV meaning he took the decision to believe despite the feeling of unbelief.

I pray that we will not let our fear become a hindrance in our walk with God. That we will obey God's instruction and trust that He will equip us to succeed in what He is calling us to do because His plan for us is Perfect. Amen!

Stay blessed