07.09.14 

For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. - 2 Timothy 1:7 NKJV. 

And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! - Luke 12:4-5 NKJV. 

Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, And the Lord listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. - Malachi 3:16 NKJV. 

But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; And you shall go out And grow fat like stall-fed calves. - Malachi 4:2 NKJV. 

In Russia, Valery Bochkarev and Alexander Blagov have created a two-day course to help people to overcome their fears. The idea is to confront people with extreme challenges and by completing those challenges their confidence is increased and fear is reduced. The fear reducing course is a hands-on type of thing. If you participate in this course, you will experience: walking on burning hot coals, walking and lying down on broken glass, lying and standing on a bed of nails, winter swimming, staged fights, stopping a falling knife with your stomach, large bugs crawling over your body, breaking wooden sticks with your necks, being buried alive and much more. Sounds like a lot of fun doesn’t it? However, there was no mention of snake charming. (Prafulla.net) 

Fear can be crippling, so much so, that some people will not leave their homes (agoraphobia). It is just one of a huge number of fears identified by psychologists and psychiatrists called phobias. Those suffering from phobias can become withdrawn, depressed, and socially incapacitated. Anyone suffering severe symptoms from a phobia should seek professional help and treatment.  

It is not God’s will for us to live in fear as 2 Timothy 1:7 says believers have not been given a spirit of fear; “but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” It is not God’s will for you to have so much fear that you are unable to leave your home. It is not God’s will for you to have such a great fear of germs or simply of social interaction that you refuse to have contact with others. 

How can fear be overcome? We know that it is not God’s will for us to be fearful of our environment, our surroundings that we live in, or of what other humans may possibly do to us. The Bible tells us that instead of fearing these things we should fear God. We should reverence and respect God by being obedient to Him. The result of such reverence, respect and obedience to God will be a reduction in the amount of abnormal fear we have toward any and everything else. You could say that as you grow your faith in God your fears will shrink. How can you grow your faith and reduce your fears? “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God (Hebrews 10:17).”