Hello everyone and welcome to another installment of the highjacked series here on https://metanoiameans.com. today, we will be talking about fear, its true purpose and how it can be highjacked by the devil for far far worse.

2 Timothy 1:7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Fear….one of our darker emotions…yes I know I dd an all encompassing article about our emotions in this series but I felt fear needed its own article so, here it goes.

We are not born with fear. It is imparted to us by those around us. “Don’t go out after dark,” “don’t talk to strangers,” “don’t throw that sandwich away, Save it for later because we don’t have enough money to go shopping this week!”

there are so many things that we are taught as children or even adults that do nothing but breed fear in us. Even seemingly innocent and playful statements like “happy wife, happy life” can bring fear into someone’s heart.

God did not give us a spirit of fear, we pick it up as we live. What he did give us though is a healthy wariness of things that could potentially harm us or hinder our walks with him. The difference between a God given wariness and a demonically driven fear is that one leads you to God through trust and love and the other makes you sit in it constantly without going to God I the first place or for that matter, at all. As we grow here on earth we are meant to seek God in all things, we were in fact created to do that very thing amongst others. However, we were NOT created to fear ANYTHING but the Almighty God himself. This fear however, is different. It is a  reverent fear that brings about respect and a desire for him. It brings about a desire not to grieve him in any way. It brings about a drive to get closer to him and better one’s self. The fear of God is constructive rather than destructive.

The fear that the world and the devil himself tries to plant in us however, is destructive. Food insecurity, homelessness, sickness, insurmountable debt, abandonment, judgment, being ostracized, the out doors, bugs, darkness, spiders and so so so many more….these are fears that the devil put on us. Are they valid? Yes but…..God is greater than all of them and all things. The fears that the world gives to us can lead to many things like substance abuse, alcoholism, self harm and suicide if they are left unchecked. That is exactly what the devil wants for all of God’s creations, all of mankind. He wants us to be so stricken and crippled by his brand of fear that we feel trapped and helpless. He wants us to sink so far into despair that we forget about God, our only safe way out.

As followers of Jesus, as children of God we have to remember that no matter what happens in our lives, God is always right there with us.

He is waiting for us to call on him for help.

He is waiting for us to give our fears, concerns and worries to him. If we do that, the devil cannot use fear against us. If we do that the devil becomes that much more powerless against us. Ladies and gentlemen, don’t be fearful, be cheerful. Don’t hide, walk in stride. Don’t fear, keep God near.