The Complexity of Fear

Deuteronomy 6:13(NLT)

You must fear the LORD your God and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name.

2 Timothy 1:7(NLT)

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

First of all, we must fear God, we must reverence God, and God deserves our ultimate respect and honor.

When God speaks of fear he is speaking of not fearing our future, purpose or protection, not fearing anyone or anything that can hinders us, it doesn’t mean putting ourselves in dangerous situations for no reason.

When the Apostle Paul is saying God did not give us the spirit of fear, it is more of timidity or cowardness.

On its surface, fear is a bad thing. We are all told not to fear, in some cases, we are told not to fear anything or anyone but God.

But reading scriptures, even Jesus and the apostle Paul, didn’t go some places because their life would have been in danger.

Fear – Biblically, fear is defined as reverence, respect, honor, but in other cases dread and timidity.

Good Fear:

1. Fear can cause us to change our diets and begin to exercise more because of a doctors report or just weight gain.

2. Fear can help to do better financially, growing up being poor fear motivated me to work hard, be financial responsible, because I did not want to live in poverty.

3. Fear can help us avoid dangerous situations, even though God is with us, we should not put ourselves in dangerous situations.

Fear can help us stay focused on potential dangers in our lives.

That’s why we buy security systems for our homes, lock our doors and windows, get alarms for our vehicles.

4. Fear can cause us to take action in our communities because we don’t not want to see our communities go down. So we get involved in foodbanks, homeless shelters, battled women’s shelters and senior citizens’ homes.

5. Fear can cause use to vote for what we believe in in elected communities, officials, or national officials.

6. Fear should give us more concern about our educational systems.

Many teachers are so overworked and under pay.

Many teachers are leaving the educational system, good teachers who really cared about their students.

Children really are our future. It’s a shame how overworked and underpaid they are. Athletics get millions and the ones teaching our kids get very little. That’s a shame.

8. Fear should make us pray, most importantly, when we look at the conditions of some of our cities, especially our inner cities, it should bring us to our.

Bad fear:

1. Fear of failure – fear can cause us to procrastinate, things we have been wanting to do for so long but keep putting it off, before that desire becomes a memory.

2. Fear of rejection – fear of rejection can cause us to stray away from relationships and friendship, mainly because of being hurt in the past.

This can lead to social withdrawal, which can cause us to miss out on opportunities and connections that can benefit us and others.

3. Fear of the future – fear of the future can prohibit us from trying new things that could help our lives better.

4. Fear can cause us to stay in our comfort zones and never grow.

5. Fear can cause us to over analyze – fear can cause us to make decisions based on our emotions.

We look at every angle one hundred times, ask a hundred people, instead of using our God-given instincts.

The Complexity of Fear – fear can be very complex.

Used negatively, fear can hinder our lives, use positively, and fear can enhance our lives.