Fear

​Jenny’s boss hit her one day—hard enough to put her in tears but not hard enough to leave a bruise. When no one else was in the office he mocked her and demeaned her work.  She wouldn’t say anything to him unless it was a plea for him to stop. She was too afraid to go for help for fear she would lose her job.  Jenny is a wonderful gal.  Unless you were perceptive you might not know that inside her run the twisted and frayed nerves of a fearful woman.

Meditation
Romans 8:15--For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”
 
Fear is often a dwarf masquerading in giant’s clothing.  Whether real or imagined it can be an insurmountable obstacle to our spiritual growth.  The New Testament offers us several examples of this.  Jesus healed a man who called himself Legion because many demons had gone into him.  When the people in the region of the Gerasenes heard of his healing and how a herd of pigs feeding nearby ran madly off a steep bank into the lake and drowned, they begged Jesus to leave because they were overcome with fear.  Rather than trust this Son of Man who mightily freed a man in bondage, they focused on out-of-control pigs and the discomfort of an insane man now walking about in his right mind (Luke 8:26-37).

The Apostle John tells us that many Jewish leaders believed in Jesus but they would not follow Him for fear that the Pharisees would throw them out of the synagogue(John 12:42).  They sacrificed truth on their own altar of prestige and social acceptance.  

The causes of fear are the cancers of faith.  I don’t want to lose something.  I am afraid harm will come to me.  So I give in to what paralyzes my ability to grow and become a prisoner in my own body. When we place our confidence in Jesus, we our freed from the spirit of fear.  We become children of God sheltered under the arms of our omnipotent Father.  We see what this looks like in the boldness of the Apostles who were not afraid to lose their lives spreading the gospel because they believed that Christ truly was their Savior.  When He rose from the dead, their fears were given a proper burial.  

To live in fear is to believe that God is not able, a grotesque lie of Lucifer.  To cower is to dance to the shake of rattled bones instead of gyrating to the praise of a redeemed spirit.  Don’t be impaled by the spear of fear.  Be like King David who wrote, “I sought the Lord, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears” (Psa.34:4).  
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Inspiration
The fierce grip of panic need not immobilize you.  God knows no limitation when it comes to deliverance.  Admit your fear.  Commit it to Him.  Dump the pressure on Him; He can handle it.—Pastor Charles Swindoll inthree steps forward two steps back
Anxiety is the secret wound of modern man.—Helmut Thielicke in The Silence Of God
 
©2000 Daniel York  ARR. Reveration is the weekly devotional ministry of First Cause.  If you would like to receive these devotionals go to www.firstcause.org and click on the “Click here to receive weekly devotionals” box.  Unlimited permission to copy this devotional without altering text or profiteering is allowed subject to inclusion of this copyright notice.      
 
Ecclesiastes 12:10-The Teacher sought to find delightful sayings and to accurately write words of truth.  (Holman CSB)