Christship -FEAR OR FAITH
There is no word called Christship however I would like to use it as it describes my friendship, fellowship and love for Christ. Sometimes we keep Christ far away from us and dont realize that He is everything to us.
Through this blog, I am want to share some simple yet powerful
leanings or revelation I have had in my life or what the Lord taught
me in the hope it will help someone who is reading it.
Some of these were published as a Newsletter by me in 2013 and based on many requests, re-sharing a few topics which are the need of the hour.
None of us ever imagined that we, our generation will experience a pandemic/plague, a war, earthquakes, famine, tsunami but its all happening. As said in Matthew 24: 7 'Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places' and this is just the beginning.
Hence as fellow Christians, we have a bigger responsibility to not only share these things but also have faith in what God can do for us and not fear and that is the topic for this week - Fear or Faith.
And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful?how is it that ye have no faith? Mark4:40
Fear is a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger. In simple terms, fear is an emotion that causes us to think & believe in negative things and doesn't help us to proceed further in life. Its plays not only with our emotions but also with the way see life. Do you agree?
Why is fear connected with having faith? well as Jesus said, you cant love money and God, similarly you cant say I trust in the Lord but I fear. I have personally battled many fears in my life and today after being with Christ for 13 years, I don't fear for God has saved me from 2 near death experiences and am here continuing the good work he began in me.
1. Is Fear = Sin?
Fear is not necessarily always sinful. It can protect us from things that will harm us, however it becomes sin when it causes us to disobey God. But in order to clearly differentiate, if fear equals sin or not, we need to understand the common types of fear that prevails in our life or the common causes of fear through biblical examples;
- Anxiety
We know that whatever God does for us is for our own good, but we are so anxious and curious to find that out on our
own. From the book of Genesis chapter 2, we see God instructing Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the Knowledge tree. But in Genesis 3: 6 we see that the Eve was so anxious and curious about why they shouldn't eat from that tree and eventually led to sin. ('So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be
desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also
gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.')
Self determined shame
This can be very well explained with the same story where in Genesis 3:10 we see that the man & women hid in shame as they realized they were naked and did not come out when God called out to them. you may ask or wonder why did Adam and Eve go against God and listen to the serpent? I had the same question and then through reading those chapters multiple times, I found the answer to be 'self-determination'. Since God gave the man and woman full free to do anything in the garden of Eden except for eating from the knowledge tree, they were sure and relied on self and did what they wished to do. They didn’t realize that self-determination will always lead to shame and shame leads to fear and fear leads or causes one to sin.
- Punishment
Fear of punishment compels a man to point the finger of blame toward anywhere but self. So instead of owning up to the mistake we are led by fear of what the punishment will be, take the easy way out, by blaming it on someone else. Genesis 3: 12-13 – The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
So instead of owning up to the mistake and fearing of what the punishment will be, we
Guilt – Fear is sometimes the result of a guilty conscience
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons so many of God’s children are living defeated lives, is because of guilt. Guilt is one of Satan’s biggest weapons against us. It tears us down, it makes us feel dirty, unworthy, robs of us of our faith and confidence in Christ Jesus. It makes us forget that Jesus not only came to cleanse us from our sins, but also set us free from the guilt of our sins. Satan loves to torment God’s people by reminding them of their pasts, and continually holding their sins before them even after their sins have been forgiven. One of the common type of guilt in the Bible is Condemnation.
Condemnation comes from Satan and is meant to tear you down. Condemnation continually points out what a failure you are, and how badly you’ve messed up. Condemnation is showing you the problem, but avoiding the solution. This is exactly what Paul wrote in his letter to Romans as we read in Romans 8:1 'Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus'.
2. Is Fear good?
Such types of fear that I had just explained is NO GOOD AT ALL. But there is One Fear that is good, which is Fear of God. We see in Exodus 20: 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin. Just after God had spoken to Moses and crowd and declared the commandments, there is a great fear amongst the people.” Hence one of the main reason why we must fear God is to keep ourselves from sins.
In Psalms 33: 8, its written "Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere him." This is also another reason for us to fear God and its beautifully written in Proverbs 9:10 | “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.”
Few other verses that teaches us what fear is good (Proverbs 8:13 | To fear the Lord is to hate evil;), to obey, worship and glorify the Lord at all times; Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him …” (Deuteronomy 6:13)“Serve the Lord with fear …” (Psalms 2:11)“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling …” (Philippians 2:12)“It shall be well with them that fear God …” (Ecclesiastes 8:12)“Fear God and give glory to him …” (Revelations 14:7)
3. Is Fear opposite of Faith?
Yes it is. Now read Mark 4: 40 again – It doesn’t mean you do not believe in God. It means you lack faith in what God can do for you. This is the actual fear we are all dealing today arises out anxiety, shame, guilt or punishment which tampers with our faith in God. 2 Timothy 1:7 says, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power,love,and sound mind and 1 John 4:18, says that perfect love casts out fear.
4. How to Overcome Fear?
- Take Matthew 6: 25-34 – it clearly says do not be anxious about anything in your life, especially what will you eat or wear or look at the birds, they have no barns to stay, if the Father can provide for them, are we not of more value???
- Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding – Proverbs 3:5 for we have seen and heard many a times that God’s ways are higher than ours (Isaiah 55:9) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
- Do not Condemn – stop torturing your self by thinking about your past mistakes, your past life, all your failures and instead turn to God for its said in Romans 8: 1- 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus'. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Hence if you want to be delivered from Fear then the most important thing you must do is to meditate on God’s words and here is a simple tip/guidance:
- First examine your heart and see if there are any areas of your life that fear has a grip on you.
- Get alone with God and place every one of those fears at the feet of Jesus.
- Make a decision to walk by faith and not by fear.
- Repent before the Lord and ask His forgiveness for your lack of faith in the particular area you are struggling with.
- Find scriptures in the Bible to meditate on each time your mind goes back to that thing you fear.
If we fill our hearts and spirit with the Word of God then there will be no room to fear. Remember what Jesus did for you on the cross, for His blood paid for that fear you are battling and so YOU do not have to be in bondage of fear any longer. Hallelujah!
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