Fear and God

Fear and God cannot co-exist.

When I was young and relevant enough to say that when I was young in faith, one of my greatest fear was darkness. Staying in a two-storey house, I would never dare to go up alone to turn in for the night. I had the habit of turning on all the lights in the house just to keep myself comfortable. The alternative was to make an approaching noise by merely stomping softly on the floor as I walked to my room (being considerate of the adjacent neighbour at least!). At the same time, little chilly ghost stories shared by many ones always intensified my fear towards darkness. There were many occasions where I tried to close my eyes while taking the cold shower, all I could imagine was horror scenes and fear. Peace was absent. I think many kids will most probably go through and share the same fear that I have. As I grew older, the fear of darkness gradually subsided.

However, in life, many of us succumb to certain types of fear throughout different stations of life. Sometimes the fear can be so overwhelming that causes destructive impacts to our lifestyle. It can be fear towards discouragement, failure, loneliness, exam, being unloved, poverty, rejection and etc. The best friend of fear is anxiety which knocks down many ones. Fear is common and is seen to be part and parcel of every life. However, lets look at what the bible talks about fear.

One familiar story where fear exploited God's disciples is in Matthew 8. The story is about Jesus and his disciples were travelling on the same boat where a storm stroke while Jesus was sleeping soundly. The disciples were fearful. Not knowing what approach to adopt, they woke Jesus up in tremble and fear, asking their master to save them.

However, Jesus rebuked them by saying "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?"

We all know that Jesus calmed the sea and his disciples were amazed. However, do we see the similarity of us in the disciples? We have the tendency to think that how faithless those men were at that point of time as we read through the bible, but have we ever truly thought what will be our response if we were in their shoes, in those scary fearful moments where the storm was so furious and the water was on the verge of getting into the boat?

In fact, the disciples had responded in a quite acceptable way as most of us would today. Just ask ourselves, when is the time we cry out to God with great intensity? Isn't it during our weakest time or when death is a step away? I believe I will react the same as the disciples when facing the same circumstance. Sometimes it is just beyond our imagination the real fact can turn out to be in comparison to what we actually know and perceive.

However, the lesson we can learn from the disciples is that, if God is for us, who can be against us? I believe Jesus rebuked the disciples for a reason. "I am here right on the same boat with you. Why are you so afraid?" Yes, Jesus was with them on the boat! Inches away!

Lets ask ourselves, if Jesus lives and dwells in us, why should we be afraid of any circumstance or challenge in our life? Jesus gave his disciples a clear message: "I am with you, do not fear."

Fear and God cannot co-exist. Once we start to fear, it is the best time for us to do a check up if the living Almighty God is absent in us. God is omnipresent and He would love to stay in every heart that welcomes Him, but we can choose to shut Jesus out of the door. It is our choice. It is our faith. Cast our fear to Jesus! Nail it at the Cross!

2 Timothy 1:7 says "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."