Anonymous (via GotQuestions)
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S. Michael Houdmann
Supporter
The Bible mentions two specific types of fear. The first type is beneficial and is to be encouraged. The second type is a detriment and is to be overcome. The first type of fear is fear of the Lord...
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Thomas K M
Supporter
Jesus said to the synagogue official, "Do not be afraid any longer, only believe." (Mark 5:36). God said to Joshua, "Be strong and courageous." (Joshua 1:5-9). We must understand the devastation of fear. We must believe that God is with us. Believe that your Father is supporting you. Our God is helping us. (Ps.34:5). Our God has a righteous hand (Isaiah.41:10) Realize that our fear has a source. God has not given a spirit of fear but a sound mind with power and love (2 Timothy 1:7). Fear comes from our limitations. Fear erects a ceiling limiting our lives. It controls us by telling us what we can and cannot do. Fear chains us to the floor and prevents us from soaring. Living in fear is a kind of death? Fear comes from our enemy. Fear comes from our wounds. Perfect love has no fear. It expels all fear (1John 4:18). The reason you don't need to be afraid is that God has you. He is holding you. The Lord loves you.
Jay Saunders
Supporter
God has not goven us a spirit that should fear but power, love and a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 A sound mind is not ruled by fear. Fear hath torment but perfect loves casts off fear. 1 John 4:18 Jesus said fear not for I will never leave you nor forsake you. Mathew 28:20 Love is just another word for Jesus because God is love so fear has no place in a christian's life. 1 John 4:8 Death is the worst thing that can happen to us but even that has been conquered for us by our Lord. For the scriptures clearly states: (to be absent from the body is to be present with our Lord.) 2 Corinthians 5:8 Fear unchecked casts off wisdom. Fear of the Lord is the beggining of wisdom. Proverbs 9:10 Caution or dealing with the concerns or cares of life should never be ruled by fear. Insurance of any kind is guarding against uncertainty, financial loss, suits, valital weather, medical or financial bankruptcy but our Lord is the greatest insurance plan ever created by our Lord God and Jesus is absolutely free. The only thing that can bar us from its rewards is unrepentant sins so if we clean our sin plate regularly. What happens in this life can only have a short term effect on us and with the Lords help all things that seam impossible can become possible. Mathew 19:26 The blind beggar cried out: (Have mercy on me oh son of David). The disciples told him to be quite but the blind beggar refused to be thwarted. He cried out the loader. (Have mercy on me oh son of David). He did not relent but he new three important facts. 1. God is merciful. 2. God hears the cry of the humble. 3. God is good to those that recognize him for who he really is our all in all and everything and only he can do the impossible and only he can takes us through all the difficulties in life with victorious living.
Jack Gutknecht
Supporter
In the New Testament one of the chief words for "fear" is deilias | δειλίας, "timidity," "fear," occurs in 2 Tim 1:7, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear," the Revised Version (British and American) "a spirit of fearfulness" or cowardice. 2 Timothy 1:7 Greek Study Bible (Apostolic / Interlinear) οὐ γὰρ ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν ὁ θεὸς πνεῦμα δειλίας ἀλλὰ δυνάμεως καὶ ἀγάπης καὶ σωφρονισμοῦ. KJV with Strong's "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind." (emphasis mine) The Greek word used here, deilia | δειλία, refers to cowardice that results from a lack of moral strength. Timothy may have been fearful to fulfill his duties because of a timid personality and the intense opposition he faced from false teachers. Paul reminds Timothy that such fear (the result of “the spirit of bondage” --Ro 8:15)-- does not come from God’s Spirit (compare Rom 8:15-16). "The spirit of power" mentioned in 2 Timothy 1:7 "casts out fear" from ourselves, and stimulates us to try to cast it out of others (1 Jn 4:18). The mind can go wild in the night of fear. Rational or irrational, the “what-ifs” crash and catapult through your head. The truth of God’s Word can help stabilize you—if you will discipline yourself to meditate on it. Have you ever dropped a small parachute over a stair landing? The parachute gently brings the weighted object to rest again. Let a verse or two do so in your mind today, bringing your fears to rest on God’s Word. “As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him” (2 Sam. 22:31). This hymn gives us the encouragement that God, the giver of power and love, "shows up" and is there for Christians! "Thou God of power, thou God of love" Thou God of power and God of love, Whose glory fills the realms above, Whose praise archangels sing, And veil their faces while they cry, “Thrice holy,” to their God most high, “Thrice holy,” to their King. --John Walker
Philip Davies
Supporter
This has become a much more relevant question now than when it was asked 9 years ago. Much of the country is living in fear; many people have become so worried about COVID19 that they have stopped going out, and are so afraid of catching this illness that they have stopped all normal activity and don't even meet with other people. Even churches have closed their doors, and when they have reopened they sit with masks on, they don't sing, and they don't offer communion. One has to wonder what Jesus would think of our reactions to an illness which is so mild that 99.7% of people who catch it are fine, and the average age of death from the disease is 82.5 years. Well, we don't have to wonder what he would say because Jesus sets out how we should deal with fear as Christians and we find it in Matt 6:25-27. 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Fear breeds cowardice. And that is not the calling of a Christian. Yes, by all means take sensible precautions, but don't allow fear of COVID19 to paralyse your Christian life. Regards, Phil
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