Word of the Week: Fear

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

There are a lot of books out there about fear. There are two types of fear, good and bad. Fearing God is good. In proverbs we read that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”

Unfortunately, most of us real folk deal with the bad fear. If you are working on eating more healthy foods in order to lose weight you might be dealing with the fear of gaining weight.

I deal with that offf and on. I used to deal with that fear every Wednesday before my weigh in at nutrition class. A year ago I had nightmares before weigh in day at work (we were all in the Big Loser’s Club). What a miserable way to live. Thank God for setting me free day after day after day.

Now that I am not going to the class, I deal with it every time I see my nutritionist, AKA health educator. It’s not about the scale, it’s something (evil) triggering the fear. I learned to say “I’m not what I weigh!” several times before I see the numbers popping up on the scale. The result was, 98% of the time I was losing weight because I was doing what I was supposed to do. So, why do I have to walk in fear? God has set me free from the fear of a scale. Now that I put that on writting I ask myself, what kind of sense does that make, being fearful of a piece of equipment?
I know there are tons of books on fear out there, tons of teaching and the best thing is that GOD has the solution for it.

The first mention of fear in the Bible was a good mention (smile).

"The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands."- Gen. 9:2

God told Noah everyone on earth would fear him. Noah had all things on earth in his hands, a privilege given by God. Since the beginning of the world God has given men dominion of all things. Occasionally God reminds me of the need of taking authority over things in my life, authority given by God through Jesus who loves me and saved me from all fear.

Scales are not evil. They have never been. We tend to project fear and anxiety to an inanimate object forgetting to look inside of ourselves. The Holy Spirit who lives in you gives you the power to overcome fear.

Confession is good for the soul – the kind that makes you move your mouth with the word of power, the Word of God. Today I choose to confess the Word of God. I confess that I take every thought captive into the obedience of Jesus Christ, casting down every imagination and every high and lofty thing that exalts against the knowledge of God. Fear is not greater that God. Jesus told us countless times, fear not and I choose to obey God.

“When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he worshiped God. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, "Get up! The LORD has given the Midianite camp into your hands." Judges 7:14-16 (in Context)

God gave Gideon countless proofs of His presence and guidance. Once he let fear go and chose to believe God, Gideon worshiped. I want to challenge you to take a step further with me and worship before we see the enemy being destroyed. God is faithful. Will you trust Him? Will you worship? Have a fearless day!