As the severity of the Coronavirus disrupts our lives and sends us running to the store to stock up, I wondered if this was a necessity or fear?
We’ve seen the wave charts documenting the need to limit contact. We’ve heard the media push the virus into the spotlight. The research is limited, but we do know people are dying quickly and quietly around the world.
My kids have come home from school and church asking questions. They’ve been worried and fear has gripped their little hearts. Still not old enough to quite understand, it’s hard to explain what’s happening without scaring them even more.
Then, after a lesson in church about the image we project, I discover that the youth we work with are just as afraid. But for a different reason. Making themselves targets to be seen as ‘better than you Christians’ because they might pray at school made me realize that fear is all around us in many different forms.
What do you fear?
Sickness? Failure? What people are think about you? Death?
The answer to all these questions is much easier than what we are willing to admit; God is the answer.
Search engines and blogs tell us that there are 365 times in the Bible that God tells us not to fear. That’s one for each day. I don’t know if that’s true, I haven’t counted. But it does seem like every time we go to read a set of verses, fear comes up.
Why?
Perhaps our creator and king understood that fear is the darkness. Fear is the catalyst for every other thing that draws us away from him. We fear what others think of us, so we go along with the crowd. It draws us into whatever sin they are wading into. We fear death so we hoard and greedily gobble up whatever our heart desires in order to feel fulfilled in this life. We fear failing so we cheat, lie and steal to become the best.
There are a lot of verses I could quote here, many that even talk about these things. But the one I’ve always been drawn to and the one I always share with the students at our church is 2 Timothy 1:7.
“For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control.”
For those of you that may not know about Timothy, he was a young pastor or leader of a church. He was taking on a responsibility much older than his years. Paul wrote this letter to encourage him, help ease his fears of being set over older and more experienced parishioners.
The point is, what do you fear and why?
Fear like what our society has right now isn’t how God created us. Being afraid of this virus or of failure or how people see you isn’t what God has in mind for us. Yes, be smart, use your common sense and protect yourself. God gave us an amazing brain, use it!
But acting out of fear isn’t going to help anyone.
As a child of God, your fear shouldn’t hold you back. We are told to give that fear to God, he wants to take our burdens from us and give us grace and mercy in return. How can we live abundantly if we live in fear? (John 10:10)
So remember that your spirit comes from God, your creator. And God does not fear, he lives in the light, not the dark. Come into the light and see how he asks us to live. We should live in his power, full of love and self-control. Don’t let your fear change who you are.
Use your renewed spirit in Christ to become a friend to those that need help, a listening ear for someone that has worry, a vehicle to go and get someone groceries or medicine. Let us show this world how different we are in Christ. Be the light, the salt, the set apart person he created you to be.
