Have you ever wondered why humans have such fear in life. While we all are afraid from time to time, even as Christians, I believe there are two main reasons why fear often grips our hearts.
The first reason is that we often are worried about what people will think of us if we do or say something that may elicit a negative response from the person we are sharing with. And the second reason is we often fear the unknown or that negative things will happen to us if we choose to say or do something.
Sadly, the reality is that we often are fearful because we are more concerned about what man will think of us than what God will think of us. And we are more concerned with our own comfort than advancing the kingdom of God and being a blessing to others.
But praise God there is a remedy to conquering our fears and it can be found in (Proverbs 16:6): “In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; And by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil.” Notice what we read in the second part of this verse: “And by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil.” I believe that when we have a healthy reverence for God, or fear God, that we can conquer our own personal fears. Zac Poonen puts it this way: “If you fear God, you really need fear nothing else.”1 My friends, reverencing God will overcome our own personal fears for several reasons.
First, the more we reverence God and stand in awe of His holiness, goodness, and love, the more we will fall in love with Him, and we will be much more concerned about bringing glory to Jesus than worrying what others may think about us or having our comfort zones invaded.
Second, in essence we become more desirous of doing God’s will and bringing Him glory than worrying about having our feelings hurt. According to (Proverbs 16:6) the more we are concerned with fearing God, the more we will work to avoid sin and evil, because God’s name and His glory trump our own personal feelings and comfort.
And third, and this is important, when we reverence or fear God, as He deserves, we need not fear what man thinks or can do to us, or of an unknown future, because we know that God has our back and will work all things for His glory and our long-term good. We also trust that God will even turn our trials and tragedies into something wonderful because that is just the nature of God. Corrie ten Boom said it well: “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”2 If God can turn the worst thing that ever happened in history, the death of Jesus Christ on a cross, into the very best thing that ever happened – the salvation of millions, don’t you think He can work your negative circumstances into something beautiful!
So, the more we fear God, the less we will fear man and instead, we will set our minds on things above. Remember what we read in (Romans 8:31): “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Finally, while yes, it is true that when we share Jesus to a world that often will reject our message and us, let us meditate on the following Scripture verses and rejoice:
(Romans 8:18): “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
(2 Corinthians 4:16-18): “Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”