Having Confidence When We Are Fearful

Fear. Whether we want to admit it or not, fear is something that we have to wrestle with. The fear of standing on the ladder that's two stories high. Fear of a spider crawling on your skin. The fear of snakes. The fear of standing on a stage with the spotlight beaming on you. The fear of getting sick and battling a future disease. The fear of losing a job. The fear of being alone. The fear of death and not being completely certain what will happen after you die.

While some fears may seem small, any fear can have a crippling effect. Our minds and our bodies can seize up, becoming almost paralyzed. For some, just thinking about it, like imagining that spider crawling on your skin, can fill us with fear.

What do we do when the ugly little head of fear begins to creep into our lives? What is it that causes you fear? An example of Abram's life shows us what we should do and what we shouldn't do.

PRAYER

I'll give you a little background to set the scene. A Great famine swept across the land of Canaan. God had called Abram to Canaan and made a covenant with him to provide land and offspring. Because the famine was so severe, fear kicked in and Abram chose to take his family to Egypt. You might think that Abram’s survival instinct may have led him to do what he thought was wise, but let's call it what it is - fear. God had called Abram to Canaan, but an uncertainty led Abram to resettle his family in Egypt.

Genesis 12:10-13 – “There was a famine in the land, so Abram went down to Egypt to stay there for a while because the famine in the land was severe. 11 When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife, Sarai, “Look, I know what a beautiful woman you are.

12 When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ They will kill me but let you live. 13 Please say you’re my sister so it will go well for me because of you, and my life will be spared on your account.”

Do you see it? As Abram approached Egypt, his mind started to zero in on his fear. He started to think about everything that his family was going to be facing. In Egypt, they would be considered foreigners with no rights or protection. Abram had fled the famine in fear, but he seemed to have traded THAT fear for the fear of being oppressed by the Egyptians.

Fear has a lot of power over us. Because of its power, fear can cause us to act erratically. We see that display of fear in Abram as he hands his beautiful wife, Sarai, to the Egyptian pharaoh so that his own life would be spared. We might think that Abram was being totally irrational in passing Sarai off as his sister and not his wife. But maybe it was in line with the cultural thinking of that time. Abram may have truly thought he was protecting his own life and doing the right thing, even though this was a partial lie.

I say a partial lie because Sarai really was Abram’s half-sister. They both had the same father, Abimelech, but not the same mother. This might sound strange to us, but in the ancient world, marriage within a family or tribe was common. It wasn’t until later in biblical history that the law was established that prohibited it. So, he didn’t tell pharaoh the whole truth. She was his sister. He just didn’t mention that they were married. But again, fear can cause us to do some erratic things.

As we talk today about having confidence in the face of fear, we need to remember that God is with us in our moments of fear. I thought of that as I thought about this story that one man told.

He said, "When I was a little boy, my dad tried to teach me how to swim. It was the first time I'd be swimming without a life jacket. I was terrified. I feared being under the water for too long, and the thought of drowning haunted me. And for some reason, I was scared my dad would let go of me.

When he finally was able to loosen the death grip of my arms around his neck, I'd like to tell you I calmly began the butterfly stroke with no assistance from my dad, swimming laps gracefully around the pool. It was quite the opposite. I was thrashing around hysterically, screaming at the top of my lungs. I was a picture of pandemonium.

In the midst of my panic, I clearly remember my dad calling out to me, ”Look at me! Focus on me! I've got you, so focus on me.” As difficult as that was to do in that moment, I slowly began to focus more on my father. As long as I focused on my father, the less I focused on the fear splashing around me, and I simply treaded water. My dad taught me a principle that applies to all of life: the more we focus on our father, the less we focus on our fear.