Yesterday we talked about “Worry” as a tactic Satan can use to keep us off balance and steal our joy. Today we will be talking about fear. Worry can take away our joy but fear can paralyze us. I have a horrible fear of heights or should I say being on top of a high building.
“I checked the internet and found a forum for pilots who confessed acrophobia. Some of their comments follow:
“I looked up to see workers on a bridge tower at 400 feet and felt nauseous, but 3 hours before I was flying over the same bridge with no problem”
“Put me up a tree and I’m almost paralyzed, but in the cockpit, I’m fine”
“I’m horrified of heights but no problems sitting in the cockpit.”
“As RAF I’m not bothered about inverted spinning at 18,000 feet, but the wife changes the light bulbs at home. I think the fear of heights is a fear of falling. In an aircraft you’re fastened to a chair and you brain thinks you can’t fall out.”
“My friends think it’s hilarious that they know a pilot who’s scared of heights.”
“Put me in a 737 at 35,000 feet and no problem. Put me on a ladder at 6 feet and I’m in real trouble.”
By Richard R. Grayson, M.D.
Senior Aviation Medical Examiner
I put that in since I knew you would be asking me, “Weren’t you a pilot”? I was taking Julie and the boys on the Blue Ridge Parkway from Asheville, North Carolina to Boone, North Carolina. First of all let me say we didn’t make it. I rounded a corner in the road and all of a sudden you could see down a couple thousand feet. The “Grip” came on, my palms got sweaty and it was all I could do to focus. Julie asked me if she could drive and I said I would let her if she could pry my fingers off the steering wheel. Right then I prayed, “Lord help me out of this, I don’t know if I can go any farther". All of a sudden we rounded the next bend and the fog was so think I didn’t know if I was 2 feet or 2,000 feet high. Thank you Jesus for answered prayer. We were in the fog till it was time to come down the mountain.
Proverbs 3:25 “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,”
Does that mean I can have fear that disaster is coming but maybe not “Sudden” disaster? Oh, what a sick mind I have!! We need to get to the point in our lives where we TRUST the promises of God and not nit pick sentences or promises. If God says don’t have fear then DON’T have fear. So how can we get that from our head to our heart? Well I am glad you asked as I have been studying this subject for 56 years.
One of the biggest starting points to fear is that we think more of ourselves than we do God. If we truly trusted God then we would not fear. Don’t be offended as I am in the same boat with you. But God has allowed this “Thorn” like Paul to keep you and I close to Him. If we didn’t have anything in our life that troubled us our human nature would trust in self. God desires that we trust in Him. I know, you may be thinking “So am I going to have fear the rest of my life because God loves me”?
No! This very fear that you have of ____________ is the very thing God has allowed into your life for you to see, feel and believe that God is real. The first thing we need to do like I did on the mountain was pray. Prayer in the name of Jesus is the ultimate weapon against Satan. Prayer is nothing more than talking, just talking to God. It does not have to be eloquent or long as God already knows your heart. He knows your struggles, He created you. If you built the house you lived in and something went wrong you would know exactly where to look. God knew you even before He formed you in the womb. He will not let you fall.
Today you may have an unhealthy fear of rejection, failure, death or___________. Remember fear comes when we think more of ourselves than we do of God. If you have fear today please pray this with me.
“Lord I want to trust in your promises. My head knows that you love me but a lot of times my heart is a far way off from believing you. Please forgive me for my lack of faith Jesus. Please increase my faith as I desperately need you to guide and protect me in this life. Help me to overcome the fear of__________ and to finally lay it down at the cross. I know you died and rose from the dead not only so we could have eternal life but so that we could have abundant life now. I don’t feel like I have abundant life and I desperately desire that in you Jesus. Thank you for knowing me better than anyone. Please search my heart and heal me from this fear. I desire to live a life that does not worry about things but only the lives and souls of others.” Amen
Don’t look far down the winding road of life. Pray and ask God to guide you, then live knowing God has you covered.
Brad
