Fear, Our Hidden Enemy

[HKHaugan]

Fear, Our Hidden Enemy

 Pride is the enemy of wisdom. It feeds the belief we have ultimate control of what we think, who or what we trust and how we behave. It is an attitude, a mindset, a confidence in self that somehow, we are in charge of making our way out of aloneness into significance, moving from the bottom to the top of whatever goal we set. It is that invisible sense of having to be someone, of having an identity that the world around us looks up to.

 If we look at pride closely one thing becomes clear. It is based on the fear of not being a ‘someone,’ not having significance, not having a personal reason for being. So, we make one. This points to something much deeper. We are afraid from birth. Afraid of being alone. Afraid of how we look among others. Afraid of not having what we see going on around us that gets acceptance, approval and recognition. It’s clear. Fear gives birth to pride.

 Suppose we could see and accept the source of fear, which is sin, the devil’s power, and shift that basic fear to the Lord Jesus who has solved sin’s fear on the Cross, corrected its course and made it work for us. Could we set our pride aside long enough to face our fears and give Him a try? Consider the substances of fear:

 First, there is personal fear. Fear of aloneness. It’s having no recognition, that you might not have a reason, purpose and a meaning for life. Then there is the fear of death and non-existence.

 Second, there’s cautionary fear, like when you don’t want to run a red light for fear of an accident, fear of physical harm, fear of emotional hurt, fear for your family and friends.

 Third, there are the anxieties, worries, trepidations, uncertainties, as you approach any unknown situation, meeting, person or event.

 It’s all fear of the unknown, of what we can’t control, what we don’t understand, of what we don’t know, of what reaction we will get, of the unexpected. Jesus carried all that on the Cross and then He rose from the dead to prove that wisdom starts where faith begins. Therefore, what we must do is accept one basic thing, our fear belongs to God. Let Him have it. Jesus, God the Son, went to the Cross to deal with all fear and its uncertainty, embrace its temptation to run, to let it take over. What all fear does is to raise the specter of death, emotional death, relational death and physical death. If we center all our fears in Him, then fear of anything less than God is displaced and we think and act with Him in mind. Faith is the opposite of fear. Faith cancels fear. Faith uses fear. Faith faces fear. Faith neutralizes fear. What the Scripture says is this: fear gets us to turn to Him where wisdom begins, the wisdom to respond according to His will as opposed to ours. Our fear ends where His wisdom begins, to center our fear in Him, to see Him as the One who has already handled every fear and that all our fears are resolved in Him. Free from fear we are able to respond led by His Holy Spirit. It is the perfect love Jesus has for us that casts out fear (1Jn.4:18).

 Facing our fears as Christ faced the hostile world around Him is where we see God in action.

 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding (Prov.9:10).” The fear of the Lord is where the Spirit of wisdom guides the responses to circumstance. His wisdom enters to give us the way to think and respond to a person, an event, an uncertainty, an insecure moment, a hostile reaction, a challenging moment when what is impossible becomes a demand for action. This is when the more we know about God compels us to rely on Him in our moment of need. It’s why He gave us Scripture. Knowing how Jesus responded in His precarious circumstances assures us of the presence of His Spirit working in the way we think and respond in our precarious moments. The whole of Scripture gives us the character building blocks the Holy Spirit provides for us to apply so that our fears diminish and His wisdom prevails.

 “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?” ~ Psalm 27:1