August 18, 2021
Neither Fear Ye Their Fear
God made the human mind to love Him and to worship and serve Him without fear or anxiety. Man started off that way. Unfortunately, it didn’t last very long, because as we see in Genesis 3:10, both Adam and Eve made bad decisions which immediately brought fear into their lives. Because they allowed sin into their lives, which brought fear, they felt shame about being naked before God.
In Geneses 2:31, it says: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed”. In Genesis 3, they became ashamed and afraid. What a difference! Here we have the first usage of ‘fear’ in the Bible. That is exactly where we don’t want to be.
Outside of the basic natural fears that a human has in the way of self preservation, fear brings nothing but destruction. It never builds up, it only tears down and each one of us has to deal with it.
Isaiah 8:12 tell us: “…neither fear ye their fear nor be afraid.”
This is a great encouragement, and it also means it is available. Group fear is one of the most effective movers in our national culture and in the world. We may have our minds steady and on course for large periods of time, but then things happen and the movers and controllers of fear bring a wave of it in our direction and we are greatly affected: sometimes “freaked out” as it is called.
2 Timothy 1:7 tells us: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Power, love and a sound mind are what Adam and Eve originally had untampered for a period of time until they decided to experiment and that cost them and us that purity. Now we have to fight to claim the peace that we have from God for it tells us in Ephesians 6:11: “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil.” The fight is to claim in our minds what we already have spiritually. And we are certainly in the midst of the wiles of the Devil.
Jesus Christ was constantly having to deal with the wiles of the Devil. In Luke 4, he aggravated a group of people in a synagogue when he spoke God’s Word and in Verse 30, it says, “But he passing through the midst of them went his way.” They wanted to throw him off a cliff, but he kept his head on his heavenly Father and handled the situation spiritually. He could have panicked, but he didn’t.
There is certainly the opportunity to panic, as with the latest “2nd wave of fear” from the COVID situation but we don’t have to. All of that is designed by the Devil and his friends and its purpose is to disrupt our lives: nothing less. Our greatest defense against all this is keeping our head in God’s Word and prayer.
Jesus spoke to Peter in Luke 22:31,32a and told him, “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not…:” What a great mind picture: your brain being sifted as wheat! That is a spiritual situation and I don’t want it happening to me. I don’t want to be a part of the rank and file who have no choice but to accept the Adversary’s sifting because they don’t understand that life is spiritual.
We might have to deal with all this stuff that is going around but we don’t have to allow it to sift us as wheat. That’s why God exhorts us to put on the whole armor of God. We need it every day in every way. Our prayer life needs to be bigger than ever.
1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing.” Those of us who can pray to God in the understanding and know how to speak in tongues have the advantage because the Devil absolutely hates speaking in tongues. He knows it will disrupt his fun. Never underestimate the power of speaking in tongues. God will honor our prayers and He will take care of us, because He loves us. We need to honor God by keeping our minds peaceful in the midst of unrest and exhorting one another with God’s peace and love. We have the true advantage because we are God’s people trying to actively work His Word in our lives. It’s a wonderful way to go!
Thanks for reading. Respectfully submitted. Will Grove