Facing Fear

It is often popular in mainstream Christianity to suggest that it is wrong to ever feel fearful. That faulty perspective has compounded the problem of fear in many people by adding feelings of condemnation to the feelings of fear they already have. Now they have two problems instead of one. 

 It is ridiculous to think that we won’t ever experience feelings of fear in life.  While it is true that God has not given us a spirit of fear (See 2 Timothy 1:7), don’t think it won’t show up on your doorstep anyway.  The question is, “What are you going to do with it?”

Listen carefully to this statement and take it to heart: It is not a sin to have feelings of fear come upon you. Again, the focal point isn’t whether or not you ever feel fear. You will. Sometimes we think, “I shouldn’t feel this way.” No, feelings come involuntarily because of circumstances we face. Feelings of fear are normal in certain circumstances. The issue at hand is deciding how you will handle it when it comes.

When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemene on the night before His crucifixion, you will never convince me that He didn’t experience feelings of fear. What else would cause Him to sweat blood and ask His Father, if there was any way, for Him to take away what was to come? The pivotal moment in the biblical account of Jesus in that garden was the way he faced his fears.

Jesus faced his fears, then acted in faith. He didn’t succumb to them. Instead, He moved through them toward the Divine purpose the Father had for His life. He refused to give in to feelings of fear and, instead, moved forward.

Our greatest threat is not fear. The greatest threat is inactivity because of fear.  You will feel fear at times. The question is “will you face your fears and move through them, trusting God as you go forward with knocking knees or a nervous stomach.

General Norman Schwarzkopf once said:

What is bad is when you allow that fear to turn into panic, and you allow that fear to petrify you to the point that you cannot perform whatever duty you have to do. That's the thing that's wrong with fear. But there's nothing wrong with being afraid. And true courage is not not being afraid. True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that's what courage is. 

The Apostle Paul once wrote, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” (1 Corinthians 2:3).  When Paul faced the daunting assignment to go to Corinth and establish a church, he felt fear, but he acted anyway. Courage is acting boldly in the face of fear.  That’s what Paul did. He faced his fears and then acted bravely.

When Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt, the time came soon came when they faced a threatening situation.  After Pharaoh released them, he changed his mind and sent his army to chase them down. The Jews quickly found themselves trapped, with the Red Sea in front of them and an army quickly closing in from behind them.

The people immediately were gripped by fear. They cried out, accusing Moses of bringing them out into the wilderness just to die. They were horrified at what they believed was about to happen. I can imagine them crying out to Moses, “What are we going to do? What are we going to do?”

Note how this great leader responded: he immediately said to them, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today . . . the Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” (Exodus 14:13).  His was an impressive response, don’t you think?

However, the next verse tells the rest of the story. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward” (14:15).  Never has the Bible given a more honest picture of leadership by showing us this behind-the-scenes look at what really happened.

Robert Lewis Stephenson once said, “Keep your fears to yourself, but share your courage with others.” To his credit, that is apparently what Moses did. He did the right thing outwardly by telling Israel not to be afraid, but then he leaves them, and must have gone behind a rock and cried out to God, “What are we going to do? What are we going to do?” To paraphrase God’s answer, Moses was told, “Why are you giving in to your fears? Get up and take the people forward!”

So he did and you know the rest of the story. Pharaoh’s army was swallowed up and Israel reached their destination on the other side of the sea. In a situation where the people and the leader felt great fear, they chose to face their fears and move forward in faith and, as a result, their objective was met. They reached the other side.

Nobody has ever successfully moved forward in life that has not had to face their fears and determine to move forward in spite of them. Don’t wait until you feel no fear to move ahead or it will never happen. Every new endeavor is embedded with the potential for being afraid. If you wait until you feel courage, you may never act.

You Father has not given you a spirit of fear, so don’t allow it to become your companion. Because of God’s Spirit in you, there is no sensible reason to ever give in to fear. You can face them because you have an omnipotent Father who loves you and who has already written the plan for your life. The Bible says “the days of my life [were] all prepared before I’d even lived one day” (Psalm 139:16, The Message).

We have a loving Savior who gave Himself so that we might experience life to the fullest degree possible. He said, “I came so that they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of!” (John 10:10, The Message) Make no mistake about it, His desire is for you to experience life to the fullest.

We have a guiding Spirit who dwells within us, giving direction to our thoughts and actions as we move through our day. To think that the Holy Spirit is disinterested in what we do discounts His great love for us. Of course He is interested and is attentive to our every need as we live our lives.

Do you feel fear about certain situations? Welcome to the human race! However, you don’t have to surrender to fear. Instead, face it and then move ahead with confidence that your Father will guide you each step of the way.

Your Natural Habitat

For in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.'
                ACTS 17:28

    Refuse to think of yourself as separate from God. Your relationship to Him is equivalent to the relationship of marine life to the ocean. He isn’t simply involved with your life. Your Father isn’t even in your life. He is your very life. It is your union to Him that defines you. Independence is an illusion that will keep you from experiencing life as He intends for you to know it. God isn’t outside you but lives in you and you in Him in this present moment.
    You are His child and have His DNA coursing through your being. He isn’t a spectator who watches you and stands by to offer His help when you need it. His life is the sustaining force and source of your being. He longs for you to experience the flow of daily living coming from His life within. Learn to see yourself living in union with your Father and believe that He will animate your thoughts, words and deeds as you go through your day.

All Is Grace

I couldn't sleep last night so I began to read Brennan Manning's new book, "All Is Grace." I became so engrossed in it that I read the whole book before turning out the light. If you're a fan of Brennan's books, as I am, I highly recommend

it. It's a touching story of his upbringing with an alcoholic dad, an seemingly-psychotic mother and Brennan's lifelong struggle with alcohol addiction.

Brennan's books have spoken more to me about our Father's love than any other author or teacher. Now, in his late seventies, he is totally dependent on his caregiver to take care of every need.

Here's the poignant poem that Brennan ends the book with:

Now there's no more crowds and no more lights,
still all is grace.
Now my eyes are wrapped in endless night,
still all is grace.
Now I pace the dark and sleep the day,
yet I still can hear my Father say --
"all is grace."

It was easy as a younger man
To squander in the far off land
Where sin was sin, like black is black.
But older brother sin is white,
this doubt that creeps me up at night--
"does Jesus love me still?"

Now I take my meds and hear the game,
still all is grace.
Now old friends drop in and bless my name,
still all is grace.
Now a prodigal I'll always be
yet still my Father runs to me.
All is grace.

 

 

 

One Mediator

For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

                                                                      1 Timothy 2:5

            Jesus became a man to unite Himself with mankind and act as the conduit through which we enter into Divine Life. He has situated us in the embrace of the Trinity. Today, there is a man in heaven who mediates our earthly lives among the Godhead.

            In Christ Jesus, we will throughout eternity enjoy the experiences He has with His Father through the fellowship of the Spirit. That has been the plan from the beginning. The incarnation of Christ makes no sense apart from that plan. He is the One who has brought us back together with the Father.

            As the God-man, Jesus knows what it is to be human. He has lived in your world and faced the same pressures and temptations that you face. He also knows what it is to be Deity. He has eternally lived in union with the Father and the Spirit.

            He lives inside you now to mediate the life of God through your humanity. You are an expression of Him in your own unique form. You haven’t been deified but you do possess Him at the core of your nature.

            Live each day as one in who resides divinity. His divine life will act through you humanity to reveal the Father’s life and love to all you meet.

Prodigal Humanity

Recently somebody on Facebook posted this question:

Hi Steve. What is your 'breakdown' of the word Reconciliation? When we were reconciled to the Father, what did that encompass?

I guess what I'm asking is; what words (do you believe) are included under the Reconciliation banner? (e.g. forgiveness, redemption, salvation, righteousness etc.).

Thanks Steve. I appreciate you.

My response:

 Good question, Grant. Maybe this illustration will provide the best answer I know how to give: When the prodigal son (Luke 15) was in the far country, who had the problem? It wasn't his father. It was him. He needed to be reconciled to his father. The father's heart toward him had never changed at all but he *believed* his father's heart had changed. In fact, one might say that he was "alienated in (his) mind" (Col 1:21).

When was he reconciled to his father? The Bible says that he came home to his father with a prepared speech about how he badly he had sinned and that, if his father would just accept him, he would become his lifelong servant. (See Luke 15:18-19)

But when he actually got there, the father wouldn't even listen to the speech. Instead, he fell on his son, hugging him. Was the son reconciled to his father then? YES! Did he know it? No, because he still tried to give his silly, "I'm sorry. I'll do better" speech.

His father would *not* let the boy give that speech. He shouted over his son's attempt, 'Bring out new shoes! Put a ring on his finger! Prepare the steaks for a big barbeque! We're gonna party like it's 99!"

So the boy was reconciled to his father, but he hadn't yet accepted it, so he benefited nothing at this point. Despite the fact that it was "finished" as far as the father was concerned, the son had to accept/believe/receive in what his father had done. Namely, forgiven him, embraced him, and totally accepted him.

Because we know how the story progresses, we understand that there did come a moment when the son *did* accept his father's acceptance. He gave up the silly notion that he had to do something to get back into his father's favor. He finally simply *melted in his father's love and accepted his (the father's) acceptance.*

The Bible says that "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting their trespasses against them" Was He simply making it possible for the world to be reconciled or was He actually *reconciling* the world to Himself? Of course, it's the latter.

We have all been reconciled to the Father by the finished work of Christ. We are "in the hug" of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

However, nobody can personally experience/enjoy that reconciliation without believing/receiving it. That's why the Bible goes on to say (after telling us that God was reconciling us all in Christ) that we are to appeal to people to "be reconciled to God!" In other words, stop resisting your Father's hug and stop trying to impress Him with promises about how you're going to do better. Just stop and melt in His loving embrace! Accept His acceptance! THAT is when reconciliation is what our God intends for it to be.

There's nothing left for Him to do. He HAS reconciled us all to Himself. Now we appeal to unbelievers to "be reconciled" to Him by simply accepting the truth about the matter, namely that we are all "accepted in the Beloved" (Jesus).

What comes with reconciliation? The same thing that came to that younger son in Luke 15. The whole farm. But, as the older brother showed us, it means nothing unless you know it's yours, stop struggling to prove something or earn something and just enjoy what has been yours all along.