Antidote for Fear BY JOEL NEDERHOOD
II Timothy 1:7 SAY YOUR JOB has you tied up in knots. Somehow, you become fearful as soon as you enter your work place, so much so that you hate to go to work in the morning. Fear of not measuring up, fear of failure, fear of being ignored, hurt or ridiculed by your co-workers, fear of being reprimanded or fired by your boss, or even fear of having to go through another boring day. These are just some of the fears that bring stress to ordinary working people.
At one time or another, in fact, fears bring stress into the day-by-day experience of every person. Today's teenagers, for example, are said to be among the most stressful people around. To make things worse, fear fuels stress, and stress increases fear. This mutual escalation of fear and stress, some experts say, is the cause of many of our illnesses. If we could make our lives off-limits for fear, we would be in the clear, and many of our illnesses would vanish.
So, if you are being buffeted by stress, you are not alone. The good news is, if your stress is clearly related to fears, then you should find the divine antidote for fear that Paul prescribes for Timothy suitable for you as well.
First-hand experience. Paul had an unusual history, of course. He went from one extreme to the other. For a long time, he was a fierce enemy of Christ. But the Lord Jesus, in all His blinding glory, personally met Paul one day and changed the Pharisee into an effective spokesman for the gospel of Christ.
As an ardent missionary of the Lord, Paul encountered many, many fearful situations. But from Jesus, he had learned how to use the resources that the Lord had provided him to handle fear. Sharing that knowledge with Timothy, he wrote, "For God did not give us the spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline" (II Tim. 1:7).
In that statement, fear is represented by "the spirit of timidity", and its antidote is the spirit of power, of love, and of self-discipline. Let's examine one at a time how we can apply these three resources to alleviate our fear.
Spirit of Power
We Christians should know a lot about power, because the Bible is about power through and through. It's about the power of God in creating the universe, the power of Christ in conquering Satan and death, the power of the Holy Spirit in saving people from all nations, and one day the power the Lord Jesus Christ will be obvious when He subjects all things to Himself.The spirit of power that Paul talks about is directly identified with the power that the Bible reveals. For Jesus told His followers after His resurrection, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to meAnd surely I will be with you always, to the very end of the age" (Matt. 28:18,20).
When the Lord said that He had been given "all authority" (meaning all power) and then promised to be with His people to the end of the age, He was referring to the power of the Holy Spirit that He would send after
His Ascension. Hence, wherever the Holy Spirit is present, all the power of God is present.
This spirit of power that God has given us is something unique, something that has to come from above. It is entirely different from whatever resources that can be found within human beings to overcome fear. The Biblical portrait of us human beings shows that in and of ourselves, we are grossly inadequate to cope with fear. Therefore, we have every reason to be afraid.
Human weakness. Even the apostle Paul admitted that he was weak in his own nature. Describing how he and his co-workers once felt, Paul wrote in II Corinthians 7:5, "When we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turnconflicts on the outside, fears within."
But the moment we recognize our own limitations, we can receive the power of God in our lives. Paul writes later in that same letter: "But (God) said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power (notice the word power) may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong" (12:9,10).
What this means is that when we confess our sin and acknowledge Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we receive not only forgiveness, but also the divine power to live a new life. Instead of fear, we have within us the power to stand against the devil's schemes and to succeed in living the life God wants us to live. Knowing
that we have this power will alone help us remove many fears. Of course, the Holy Spirit is always there to strengthen us as well.SPIRIT OF LOVE
The second item that replaces fear is the spirit of love. Here, Paul is talking about agape love. It is the love that was first displayed by God Himself when He gave His only begotten Son to redeem His creation.Actually, God is love. That's why when believers love one another, as Christ has commanded, the world will know that we are God's people. That is also why love is ultimate reality; it will finally conquer all things. Paul writes in I Corinthians 13: "Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass awaythese three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" (v. 8,13).
If we analyze our fears, we will find that the fears that upset our relationships with others are often rooted in our inability to love as we ought. Take for instance a husband and wife who do not get along. Typically, it's because they don't love each other as they should. They become afraid of each other; they are fearful of being hurt; and, as a result, they live under ever increasing stress.
God's help. But if just one of them repents and asks God for the power to love the other fully, things will begin to improve. When you love someone, you pray for that someone and minister sacrificially to that someone. And when one spouse loves the other that way, their relationship is bound to improve. God may then use it to mellow and change the other spouse as well.
In I John 4:18, God says, "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The man who fears is not made perfect in love."
One of the main causes of our fears is that we are obsessed by our ego. We're afraid to have our pride hurt or our dreams shattered. When Christ comes into our lives, though, love replaces our self-centeredness. We become more flexible about what we want and more responsive to what other people need. A truly loving person thus cannot be racked by tension and stress.
Spirit of Self-Discipline
The spirit of self-discipline is an effective replacement for those fears that are related to the foreboding of failure. Many people are driven to despair because they are overwhelmed by too many responsibilities. But God does not expect us to do more work than we can handle. It's just that often we are dissolute wasters of time, talent, and energy in doing things that have little or no spiritual value.And this is where the spirit of self-discipline comes in. It helps us set priorities as we seek first the kingdom of God. With those priorities, we can then arrange our lives so as to live effectively, instead of simply reacting to one situation after another. We sort out the things to do, examine our gifts and options and then decide what really need to be done and what are dispensable.
Once we introduce some order into our thoughts and our activities, we'll be able to get on top of the circumstances in our lives. Then, we will soon discover that the fear that used to overwhelm us no longer exists. Instead, we live with a sense of purpose; each day becomes a day of opportunity to serve our Lord and minister to His people. And as we depend on Him totally, He will give us the needed strength and wisdom.
So, if you have been beset by fears, turn to Jesus now. Confess your own inability to do anything apart from Him, and let the spirit of power drive away your natural spirit of timidity; let the spirit of love remove the fear of your pride being hurt or of your personal desires unfulfilled; and let the spirit of self-discipline set your priorities, so that you can devote your time, talent and energy to do all that God wants you to do. o
Dr. Joel Nederhood is radio minister on The Back to God Hour. For broadcast information, write to 6555 W. College Drive, Palos Heights, IL 60463.