Fear, Not!

Isaiah 41:10
Don’t be afraid, for I am with you.
Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you,
I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

Proverbs 14:25-27
A true witness delivers souls,
But a deceitful witness speaks lies.
In the fear of the LORD there is strong confidence,
And His children will have a place of refuge
The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life,
To turn one away from the snares of death.

2 Timothy 1:6
For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline

Three verses God has been been constantly reminding me off these past few days. You know when particular verses just start popping up everywhere that God must be trying to get your attention and that there must be a message from him. So I am deciding to listen.

I am a University student this year. I am studying as a SETA student, so I can work with special needs kids and help them through their education journey. It can be a constant battle...but that isn't the only battle I am fighting right now. I happen to enter another battle field daily. Five days a week right in my own classroom. It's a spiritual battle, and there are so many souls to be saved.

What does it mean to fear something? What does it mean to be afraid? What does it mean to fear the Lord? The simple word, fear, has multiple meanings. We tend to think of it as being afraid. But when you start talking of "The Fear of the Lord" I have heard it explained as being constantly aware of his presence. If you have ever been told "Someone is always watching" this might make sense of you. To be constantly aware of someone's presence is to always be knowing that someone is around. Let's face it, when someone is around we act differently then if we are on our own. We don't do certain things and we don't say certain things. It really does depend on who is in the room. It is the same way with God. It isn't right, but it happens. We need to be constant with him. We need to remember that God is always there and that we should always be on our best behaviour. There is no need to suddenly be worried, and put on a mask.

My next question is...why does it have to be so hard to share our awesome and powerful, glorious experiences in the presence of God with unbelievers? Don't people learn the best by hearing other's personnal stories and experiences? Why do we suddenly get so scared around our unsaved friends. Why do we suddenly forget that we can lay hands on our unsaved friends and pray that God will heal them? We do it all the time at church and with our Christian friends, It's time to step outside of the church.

I had an experience. Someone in my class was telling me some of their health problems that they have been dealing with. The whole time they are talking God was telling me "come on, pray for her, you can do it." But the ruth is, I didn't. The Truth is that I regret it, I have regretted it ever since then. I know I should of...but I was too afraid. I let fear take control and not God. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear" Well then all I can say right now is "Jesus, get this devil plain out of my life cause I don't need him....I need YOU! I want that spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

I want to see lives saved, eyes opened, people healed, and Christ revealed. But how is this ever going to happen if I am too scared to step forward and begin praying for people in my work, in my classroom, and even just plain on the streets. What would happen if we just kept this in our churches? What would happen if we just kept all this "spiritual stuff" in our safe communities? We wouldn't be fullfilling what Christ asked us to. We wouldn't be "GOING in to all the world" Those words God gives me for people, I need to take a step of faith and believe they are from God. Then I need to GO! I need to SPEAK those words of power and love in to somebody's life.

Are you afraid? You aren't alone. Question is, are you going to let that fear control you? Or are you going to give it to God to let him deal with it so you can get on with the work He has set out for you to do????