Fear is Good

 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.  (Proverbs 9:10)

God created us with fear as defensive tool.  Just like He created love in us that the enemy distorted into all kinds of self serving behaviors, he gave us fear as a positive to protect us but too often the enemy has again twisted that positive fear into a paralyzing reaction to our imaginations.  

Some will also tell us "the only thing to fear is fear itself" (Franklin Roosevelt)   Others will suggest that we trust in ourselves.  Somehow if we just believe in ourselves we can overcome all fear. Many movies in our culture are designed specifically to create fearful emotions within us.  

However, what we find in life is that living without healthy fear and trusting in ourselves can lead to all kinds of disappointments, even disasters in our lives.  Many of us made foolish decisions when were young that rose out of a lack of of healthy fear.  "Ten feet tall and bullet proof." as the song goes.   God gave us fear as a positive to preserve life.   It is wise to fear certain wild animals.  It is wise to fear exposure to certain bacterias and viruses.  It is wise to fear exposure to extreme temperatures and weather events.    Some will say that it's wise to fear certain foods. These are all positives.  

Fear is a recognition that we are not equipped to survive exposure to certain events, certain behaviors, certain environments. This is very individual.  Some people are more equipped for certain situations than others but no one is equipped for every situation that a person could encounter.  This again is a positive.  Recognition that we are not equipped will often save our lives and perhaps the lives of others.    In order for addicts to recover, they must make the first step of acknowledging that they are not equipped to break the addiction on their own.  Further, once recovered, they should rightfully fear falling back into addiction.  As Christians, our first step is acknowledging that we are sinners and incapable of freeing ourselves from slavery to sin.  We recognize, with a healthy fear, that without God we are powerless to change our lives.  This is a positive fear.  

It could be said that if you are not at least a little bit afraid each day then you may not really know what's going on around you.  We have enemies who are seeking to defeat us constantly.   One is identified in the Bible as Satan and he has hoards of assistants seeking our destruction.  Peter tells us "Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion , seeking someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)  The other can be identified as ourselves.  Yes while we have been freed from slavery to sin in Christ, we still struggle against the "old man" or "old lady", that person we used to be.  (See Romans 7).   It is a positive to have a righteous fear of those enemies.  It would be foolish to ignore them or pretend that they have no effect in our lives.  

Righteous fear, driven by wisdom, should drive us to our knees daily.  God has promised that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8).  He has promised to care for us and bless us.  But too few Christians reach out for this protection taking God for granted that He will take care of things without our asking.  Many Christians seem unaware of temptations and paths that can lead them to destruction.  Every time words escape our mouths that we regret or feelings rise in us that distort reality we should be reminded how little we are equipped to handle.  This is not living with righteous fear. 

God is not the God of paralyzing fear.  He is the God of power and He will respond in power on behalf of His people.  We are told in many places in the Word not to be afraid.  And yet this is referring to the kind of paralyzing fear as though there is no hope. He calls us to over come fear by trusting in Him.  Even death is not something that we must fear because we have already been transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of His Glorious Son. (Colossians 1:3)  This allows us to live without paralyzing fear but not because we are equipped on our own to do anything but because we kneel before Him seeking His will and His protection and His wisdom.  

Remember that healthy fear should bring us to our knees before the God who loves us, acknowledging that we are not equipped in ourselves to accomplish anything for our families, our work, our world without Him but in Him we can do all things.