Fearless
Fear.
It's everywhere around us, present in so many ways. Am I afraid of the dark? Do I fear someone's reaction? Do I fear spiritual warfare?
In so many ways I think fear has become like love in our culture. The true depth of it is lost because of the various ways we see it all the time.
I have been thinking on fear a lot lately. I have come to a time in my life where fear does not rule my daily life. That's really crazy for me to say but it's true. I have such a confidence in God and his work I am not afraid of near as many things on a daily basis. Now don't get me wrong I still have fears. Recently I have had a family member dealing with some pretty scary things that leave a lot of unknowns, yes there is a level of fear and worry that will naturally come with that. But I can honestly say fear is not in the drivers seat of my life right now. While I am confident in God and hope that I have conquered this particular stronghold in my life, I also know better than to let myself get too cocky about this victory.
So back to fear. There have been some recent events, interactions, situations, etc that have caused me to think about how we as christians go about things. Dealing with evil in the world around us in particular. As far as I see it evil is all around us. It's in so many facets of our world that 2 minutes in any news media and you will find plenty of examples. For me personally I do not struggle with the concept of a spiritual realm, of angels and demons, of a war going on unseen around us. It's there, and frankly if God ever opened my eyes to the full realities of it I would not be able to handle it, I know that. The darkness that exists around us is really only bearable because of the light we have in Christ. In the sermon on the mount Jesus even said, "you are the light of the world, a city on a hill." In the very next breath comes the fact that, "no one lights a candle and puts it under a bowl, instead it is put where it can bring light to the whole house."
We know our world is filled with darkness, we know God has given us his light in order to shine into the darkness around us. Clearly we are not made to cower and hide. Yet I begin to wonder as christians are there moments we live in fear of the evil around us and choose to hide rather than run into the darkness shining God's light?
There are things in life that are very clearly strongholds of evil. Frankly when it comes to these things we do need to excersize caution in approaching them. I mean, we are suppposed to put on the armor of God right? So assuming we've donned our armor and we're letting God lead us we can pretty much take on whatever comes in our path, right? How many terrifying things, situations, places just flashed through your head? "God, don't lead me there!" "Don't ask me to do that!" "I can't do that!" If I remember correctly I have already talked about how "I can't" is a lie. The truth of the matter is there will be things God asks us to do that will be among the list of "things I would never even think of doing". Now I am fairly certain God is not going to ask me to jump out of a perfectly good airplane as a part of his plan for me, that's on my list of those fears. However, He is going to ask me to be on a stage talking to people, which is also on my list. I know because he's already called me to do it. Talking in a group and putting myself on a stage are 2 very different things for me. Yet, I am working through that fear and reluctancy because of God's leading and calling in my life. Ok, so stages and airplanes are not evil strongholds. So maybe those are still easier to tackle than some things. I have begun to wonder though, where is the line that evil doesn't cross? Where do the things that are "safe" end? Why are we more hesitant to take our light into some situations and not others?
I was looking at a few things that we as believers are hesitant to run towards and I asked a friend for a few thoughts. "Witchcraft obviously, but more subtly homosexualtiy and intolerance." He also brought up boycotting. Honestly I hadn't even put that in the same realm until he suggested it. He hypothesized many christians tend to boycott things they are afraid of. Whether it's boycotting target over bathrooms, disney over content, the nfl over kneeling, or even starbucks over coffee cups we tend to see an evil and run from it and call others to join us. Now those specific examples don't strike many of us as evil but to some they are. But again I ask, what kind of response are we really called to?
Now sidebar for a moment. I know there are some things in life that we need to keep our distance from. My friend and I both had the same thought. Oiuja boards. Seeing as how the spiritual realm is alive and kicking and there are both good and demonic forces there we do need to watch playing with things where it is difficult to discern who is guiding you. That being said where does caution end and fear begin? I think the answer is in the spirit's leading.
The major catalyst to this is a question I have seen a lot lately, posed by a lot of believers, with strongly held opinions on all sides by many. How should believers handle Halloween? Now, I know I just opened a can of worms. Most of you reading this will know my personal approach to this holiday. Let me start by saying, I can respect all opinions on this subject. We have many different reasons for why we choose to handle it the way we do. Here is a small part of what I have been considering for the past month or so. What role does fear play in our choices on this?
Like I said before, I am all for caution and being prepared before we dive headlong into a clearly marked danger area. Does that mean we don't touch it with a 99 and a half foot pole though? Again, though I ask. What if God is leading us, as a light into a particularly dark part of our world to shine our light? How do we know? do we hesitate? Have we triple-checked that our armor is battle ready? Is fear of that evil overtaking us what is stopping us?
After the better part of a month on this thought I came to 1 John 4. Now I started out in verse 18, but I pulled back to look at context and honestly found a lot to chew on in the whole chapter. So it starts off advising us to test spirits. Those that acknowledge Jesus are from God, those that don't are not. Simple enough. Then john points to looking for the spirit of truth and the spirit of false hood. The spirit of truth is in us as believers. He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. We are to love one another because love comes from God. If we don't know God we can't show his love. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." We love because he first loved us. So in this I see 2 major thoughts. First off be aware of the spirits around you, some are good, some are not. We can figure out the difference easily enough because of the Holy spirit in us. Also because of knowing God and having the holy spirit we should love without fear. Frankly, that is hard. To love boldly is to put ourselves out there exposed to be potentially hurt. So many of us don't for fear of being hurt. God's perfect love is without fear though. So as we strive to love those around us we know that God and his love are in us and he is greater than all the evil things in the world.
I then started thinking about Psalm 27. "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? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident."
Repeatedly there is scripture telling us to not be afraid, those that come against God are toast. When He is on our side we can not fail! Now I didn't directly quote some really well known verses. I have always been big on context and it has recently been more clear just how important it is. So for the sake of not pulling things out of context I did not call them all out. The truth of the matter though is that we know these things, many of us have stories in our own lives that show just how powerful God is to strike down forces around us and to lead us in His love and truth.
So the conclusion I guess I have come to is this. While we each have to follow God's leading in our own lives I don't see it out of the realm of possibility for God to lead us to love our communities, families and the world around us in such a way that we walk into some of those strongholds with His perfect love and not fear the evil that is in the world. To shine His light and show His love. Whether that is on one particular night of the year, or in our everyday lives with people around us living less than Godly lives. I think the most important things to remember are we can't do it on our own. Without God leading it will be useless. We also can't do it without our armor on. So to quote the lord of the rings "Forth, and fear no darkness!"
It's everywhere around us, present in so many ways. Am I afraid of the dark? Do I fear someone's reaction? Do I fear spiritual warfare?
In so many ways I think fear has become like love in our culture. The true depth of it is lost because of the various ways we see it all the time.
I have been thinking on fear a lot lately. I have come to a time in my life where fear does not rule my daily life. That's really crazy for me to say but it's true. I have such a confidence in God and his work I am not afraid of near as many things on a daily basis. Now don't get me wrong I still have fears. Recently I have had a family member dealing with some pretty scary things that leave a lot of unknowns, yes there is a level of fear and worry that will naturally come with that. But I can honestly say fear is not in the drivers seat of my life right now. While I am confident in God and hope that I have conquered this particular stronghold in my life, I also know better than to let myself get too cocky about this victory.
So back to fear. There have been some recent events, interactions, situations, etc that have caused me to think about how we as christians go about things. Dealing with evil in the world around us in particular. As far as I see it evil is all around us. It's in so many facets of our world that 2 minutes in any news media and you will find plenty of examples. For me personally I do not struggle with the concept of a spiritual realm, of angels and demons, of a war going on unseen around us. It's there, and frankly if God ever opened my eyes to the full realities of it I would not be able to handle it, I know that. The darkness that exists around us is really only bearable because of the light we have in Christ. In the sermon on the mount Jesus even said, "you are the light of the world, a city on a hill." In the very next breath comes the fact that, "no one lights a candle and puts it under a bowl, instead it is put where it can bring light to the whole house."
We know our world is filled with darkness, we know God has given us his light in order to shine into the darkness around us. Clearly we are not made to cower and hide. Yet I begin to wonder as christians are there moments we live in fear of the evil around us and choose to hide rather than run into the darkness shining God's light?
There are things in life that are very clearly strongholds of evil. Frankly when it comes to these things we do need to excersize caution in approaching them. I mean, we are suppposed to put on the armor of God right? So assuming we've donned our armor and we're letting God lead us we can pretty much take on whatever comes in our path, right? How many terrifying things, situations, places just flashed through your head? "God, don't lead me there!" "Don't ask me to do that!" "I can't do that!" If I remember correctly I have already talked about how "I can't" is a lie. The truth of the matter is there will be things God asks us to do that will be among the list of "things I would never even think of doing". Now I am fairly certain God is not going to ask me to jump out of a perfectly good airplane as a part of his plan for me, that's on my list of those fears. However, He is going to ask me to be on a stage talking to people, which is also on my list. I know because he's already called me to do it. Talking in a group and putting myself on a stage are 2 very different things for me. Yet, I am working through that fear and reluctancy because of God's leading and calling in my life. Ok, so stages and airplanes are not evil strongholds. So maybe those are still easier to tackle than some things. I have begun to wonder though, where is the line that evil doesn't cross? Where do the things that are "safe" end? Why are we more hesitant to take our light into some situations and not others?
I was looking at a few things that we as believers are hesitant to run towards and I asked a friend for a few thoughts. "Witchcraft obviously, but more subtly homosexualtiy and intolerance." He also brought up boycotting. Honestly I hadn't even put that in the same realm until he suggested it. He hypothesized many christians tend to boycott things they are afraid of. Whether it's boycotting target over bathrooms, disney over content, the nfl over kneeling, or even starbucks over coffee cups we tend to see an evil and run from it and call others to join us. Now those specific examples don't strike many of us as evil but to some they are. But again I ask, what kind of response are we really called to?
Now sidebar for a moment. I know there are some things in life that we need to keep our distance from. My friend and I both had the same thought. Oiuja boards. Seeing as how the spiritual realm is alive and kicking and there are both good and demonic forces there we do need to watch playing with things where it is difficult to discern who is guiding you. That being said where does caution end and fear begin? I think the answer is in the spirit's leading.
The major catalyst to this is a question I have seen a lot lately, posed by a lot of believers, with strongly held opinions on all sides by many. How should believers handle Halloween? Now, I know I just opened a can of worms. Most of you reading this will know my personal approach to this holiday. Let me start by saying, I can respect all opinions on this subject. We have many different reasons for why we choose to handle it the way we do. Here is a small part of what I have been considering for the past month or so. What role does fear play in our choices on this?
Like I said before, I am all for caution and being prepared before we dive headlong into a clearly marked danger area. Does that mean we don't touch it with a 99 and a half foot pole though? Again, though I ask. What if God is leading us, as a light into a particularly dark part of our world to shine our light? How do we know? do we hesitate? Have we triple-checked that our armor is battle ready? Is fear of that evil overtaking us what is stopping us?
After the better part of a month on this thought I came to 1 John 4. Now I started out in verse 18, but I pulled back to look at context and honestly found a lot to chew on in the whole chapter. So it starts off advising us to test spirits. Those that acknowledge Jesus are from God, those that don't are not. Simple enough. Then john points to looking for the spirit of truth and the spirit of false hood. The spirit of truth is in us as believers. He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. We are to love one another because love comes from God. If we don't know God we can't show his love. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." We love because he first loved us. So in this I see 2 major thoughts. First off be aware of the spirits around you, some are good, some are not. We can figure out the difference easily enough because of the Holy spirit in us. Also because of knowing God and having the holy spirit we should love without fear. Frankly, that is hard. To love boldly is to put ourselves out there exposed to be potentially hurt. So many of us don't for fear of being hurt. God's perfect love is without fear though. So as we strive to love those around us we know that God and his love are in us and he is greater than all the evil things in the world.
I then started thinking about Psalm 27. "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? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident."
Repeatedly there is scripture telling us to not be afraid, those that come against God are toast. When He is on our side we can not fail! Now I didn't directly quote some really well known verses. I have always been big on context and it has recently been more clear just how important it is. So for the sake of not pulling things out of context I did not call them all out. The truth of the matter though is that we know these things, many of us have stories in our own lives that show just how powerful God is to strike down forces around us and to lead us in His love and truth.
So the conclusion I guess I have come to is this. While we each have to follow God's leading in our own lives I don't see it out of the realm of possibility for God to lead us to love our communities, families and the world around us in such a way that we walk into some of those strongholds with His perfect love and not fear the evil that is in the world. To shine His light and show His love. Whether that is on one particular night of the year, or in our everyday lives with people around us living less than Godly lives. I think the most important things to remember are we can't do it on our own. Without God leading it will be useless. We also can't do it without our armor on. So to quote the lord of the rings "Forth, and fear no darkness!"
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