Tuesday, September 30, 2003
OVERCOMING THE FEAR FACTOR -- FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE – It is harder to practice than to theorize
I spoke at church for 3 Sundays recently on this topic of overcoming fear. I chose to do so because:
A. I know I am a fear-prone person and thought it would be helpful to
me in being able to overcome my fears.
B. I thought the teaching would help a lot of people in my church who
may struggle with this as I do.
C. I thought it would help our church get ready for our “40 Days of purpose Campaign. It seemed that using these Bible principles would help us overcome our fear of something different and get us to be willing to get out of our comfort zones so God can do great things with and through us during and after the 40 Days of Purpose.
Now I know God had another purpose in mind in addition to these. I believe He is saying to me, “Jim, here is a chance to ‘Practice what you preach!’”
I went to a Medical Specialist today and what he told me, following a thorough exam, was scary. Now I am petrified. So what do I do? The choice is up to me. I am praying (and would ask any who read this who know me to pray also) that I will choose to follow Biblical principles and deal with my fear, not continue in it. Now I have to move from the THEORY of how to overcome fear in my life, to the actual practice of the Biblical principles I have been teaching and writing on the subject in these Blogs
In other Blogs I have suggested 2 steps that I believe are Biblical that we should take to overcome fear: STEP 1: BE SURE OF YOUR SALVATION; BE SURE YOU ARE RIGHT WITH GOD. And STEP 2: TAKE TIME TO DEVELOP A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. Now let me suggest a third principle:
Step 3: PRACTICE SELF-CONTROL, SELF-DISCIPLINE. 2nd Timothy 1:7 says: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity {fear}, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” I guess this means that if I have a spirit of fearfulness in my life I didn’t get it from God. If I didn’t get it from God, I must have gotten it from Satan.
This verse also tells me that self-discipline did come from God. It seems that I evidence for whom I am living by how I live! OUCH! This takes away my “excuses” for allowing myself to continue living a fearful life.
I’d like to clarify something right here: I am not saying that we shouldn’t be afraid of anything. There are things, people, circumstances that we would do well to fear. What I refer to in these Blogs is being in a state of constant fearfulness.
From the 2nd Timothy Scripture it would seem that our phobias – irrational fears (see a previous Blog for a list of phobias) -- result from our lack of self-control or self-discipline.
Scripture seems to teach that God’s love flowing through us to others drives away fear. At least that is what 1st John 4:18 seems to teach me: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.”
So to help me be able to control my fears, I need to find others upon which to pour out the love of God. That isn’t hard to if I am really willing to do it. So I guess we should ask, “How’s your love life?” Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15) His commandments are many. One of the clearer sets of commands regarding doing for others is found in Matthew 25:35-36. I suggest that you read that passage. It tells us that when we’ve done something (or not done something) for others it is the same as having done (or not done) something for Jesus. That passage is a good prescription for showing God’s love.
Most of us don’t do this because of our selfish nature. Fear and selfishness go hand-in-hand. To get rid of fear we need to conquer selfishness in our lives.
I think I’ve written enough on the subject. I need to move from theory to practice. That’s going to be the hard part. But the Medical Specialist has given me a concrete reason to focus on overcoming my fears.
Please pray for me.
Jim
posted by jim 11:50 PM 0 comments
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