Whoever has become a servant of the Lord fears only his Master. But whoever is without the fear of God is often afraid of his own shadow. Fearfulness is the daughter of unbelief. A proud soul is the slave of fear; hoping in itself, in comes to such a state that it is startled by a small noise, and is afraid of the dark.
~St. John of the Ladder
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD. Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in. Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!
~ David, a man after G_d’s Own Heart, in Psalm 27
Oh beloved, it is true.
A human is Designed to fear. Do not buy into the lie that all fear is a lie. No, fear is one of our core indicators in life. And, if you will test it for yourself, you will realize that fear is a constant. And – fear is wherever we are looking.
There is no real need to unpack this for a number of paragraphs. We get it if we are honest.
If we are looking at our sin, we panic over being found out, and shudder at the judgement day that will come for sure.
If we are looking at our circumstances, we are aghast at how gossamer thin are the protections we can create against negativity and change.
If we are looking at others, we see how fickle and broken every. single. one. of. us. really is. It can, and does, scare us to death.
If we are looking at our finances, we tremble at the fiat as it makes wings and flies away.
If we are looking at politics, we see that sand castles seem to have a longer life span.
Fear burns into the lens of our thinking. It both paralyzes us and sends us to flight.
What to do?
Can we see it?
David did. He had plenty of reasons to be afraid. A real king, with a real temper, with a real motive, and with a real army had David and his very good brothers-in-arms on the run. And the is was not some ten-minute movie segment. No, this was an ongoing saga of life and death for David.
David had looked at all the problems. But he had a very precious stubborn streak in him. He had this audacious (and Holy Spirit given) willingness to refuse to look at the things that might prompt a fear that would slow him down.
David had learned it, and it really is all throughout the Word. The only place that fear really makes any sense; the only place where it comes into proper focus is when we focus it on G_d. However, when we do look upon Him a dreadful reality tears into us.
We say something like, “Ain’t nothing gonna make this Guy fear. And i am very, very sure He could tear me to bits in a millisecond. But, something is different about Him. He… He Loves me. His Love is so large that i am IN it. i am IN HIM!”
And, our fear just drops away into some sort of eternal abyss (where it truly belongs).
Then… we look at all the stuff that was making us afraid before – and we just wonder what in the hell we were thinking in the first place. Yeah, that’s where all that kind of fear needs to go, by the way.
So, are you feeling a fear that makes you feel all sort of shifty and like nothing is ever going to be OK? We all do. But the answer is not to try and stop feeling fear – that is impossible. Would that we would, even tonight direct our fear towards the Only One Who can make it do what it is supposed to do.
Tonight is your night. Time to fear G_d alone.
Whoever fears God stands above all manner of fear. He has become a stranger to all the fear of this world and placed it far from himself, and no manner of trembling comes near him.
~St. Ephraim the Syrian, On the Fear of God and the Last Judgement
