The Fear Factor

I have no idea who most of the people are that read my Tidbits but regardless I try to be as honest and transparent and committed as I can be while doing them.  I pray about them before I start, then I put myself in God’s hands for the outcome.  I know that the scripture says this and I truly believe that this is true.  It says this in Psalms 127:1-2:

“Unless the Lord builds the house,

They labor in vain who build it;

Unless the Lord guards the city,

The watchman stays awake in vain.

It is vain for you to rise up early,

To sit up late,

To eat the bread of sorrows;

For so He gives His beloved sleep.”

You can try all kinds of things and even be successful at some of them, but unless you trust the Lord to guide you and lead you, your success will be minimal at most and you will never know real peace and joy in your life.  Who are you depending on?  Everyone depends on something or someone to get them through life.  

Sunday morning I woke up and started talking to my wife about faith and how many people say they have faith.  I know that every born-again believer has a measure of faith because it says this in Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  

Knowing that every true believer has some faith, the question is do they really trust in the Lord?  I think a good test of this is when believers experience storms in their life; I am talking about things that were so unexpected they were taken by complete surprise, things that happen that you have no control of whatsoever.  How do you respond to these uncontrollable situations that occur without notice?  Then where does your dependence lie?  Many believers will stop and pray almost immediately, which is a good response, but then what happens, do they start to stress out and become anxious allowing fear and doubt to creep in and immobilize them or do they put the situation in the Lord’s hands, knowing that He loves them and is working everything out for their good.

This is not a message of rebuke, I believe most believers face these faith moments and fall short on faith.  Elijah was a very godly man, experiencing many miracles, but when Queen Jezebel threatened his life he was fearful and ran for his life.  What about the spies that were sent to spy out the land of Canaan?  When they had returned, only two had the faith to trust the Lord for the victory over giants they claimed lived in the land.  What happened?  They had seen many miracles and they heard of many more I am sure.  The fear factor set in and they lost all perspective; all they could see were the giants.  

Now think about Jesus in the boat with His disciples with fear rising more and more within them until they could take it no longer.  What was their problem?  Their eyes and minds were on the storm.  Think about it, they had the miracle worker in the boat with them but their faith was leaving them and was being replaced with fear, so in desperation they woke Jesus up, like I said, this was a desperate act, not believing that Jesus had the power to calm a storm, but hopeful that He could do something helpful in some way.  You can find the story in Mark 4:35-40.  Then when Jesus had calmed the storm, they said this to each other in verse 41, “And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!’”

There was another true story about a storm in God’s Word in which Peter had a problem with a storm and also the fear factor found in Matthew 14:22-33.  In this situation, Peter gets out of the boat and starts walking on the water but before long he starts to sink.  What is his problem?  His eyes and mind are on the storm and fear takes over and Peter starts to sink.  If he would have just kept his eyes and mind on the Lord he would have been fine.

These stories might make us feel better, but we can’t use them for an excuse.  What we need to do is to learn from them and rebuke fear anytime it rises up within us and totally believe; then we will have mountain moving faith. Something to think about, God bless and have a super day!!