The Direction of Fear

I have been taking a deeper personal look at the issue of fear. I recently read that, if we truly feared God, we would have no reason to fear anything else, but if we don’t fear God there is good reason to fear everything!

It is certainly clear from the bible that surrendered fear towards God is entirely good for us. This is not a fear of His punishment, but a deep reverence that acknowledges His overwhelming omnipotence.

A sustained place of fear in our lives is, in effect, a place of submission, and when that fear is directed towards God, we will only benefit. However, there is a ruler of this world who looks to distort the life of man. One way that this is possible is when sustained fear has been given opportunity to control some aspect of our lives, in opposition to the will of God.

I was speaking to a dear Christian sister recently who had come to realise that her fear of failure, rooted in childhood from the harsh attitude of her mother, had become a controlling and damaging place in her. This fear was distorting her walk with Jesus and stealing the spiritual authority that she needed, in order to tackle the challenges in her life.

It was so encouraging to see her face this issue with Jesus and to see the controlling power of the enemy dissipate. She seemed visibly to grow in stature as she chose to give a deeper place of surrender to the Lord, instead of submitting to the debilitating fear of failure.

Prayer: Father, help me to understand more and more the true meaning of the fear of God, so that I may find freedom from all other fears. Amen.