What does your year ahead look like?
Is it a year full of faith and hope? Or is it a year full of fear and despair?
I think we would all like to say that it is a year full of faith and hope, but the reality of life is that for many people it is just another year of fear and despair ...
Because we live in a world full of fears:
• Fear of this new variant of the COVID-19 virus
• Fear that like many other people we know may die of this virus within 12 hours
• fear of the future, whether we will survive financially, still have a job with all the retrenchments going on - restrictions limiting the number of clients you have
• fear of the unknown, whether this vaccine against COVID-19 will change your DNA as many people claim, and that you will then go to hell (yes, there are such videos in circulation...)
• fear of suffering, of cancer, of a long sickbed that robs you of your human dignity
• fear of crime becoming increasingly violent and people being shot dead just for a cellphone, which makes you too scared to go to sleep, too scared to go to a mall
• fear of failure, that you are not good enough, fear of rejection, fear of people planning your downfall, fear of racism at work that is now unfairly harming you, and many other fears.
Fear is the belief that there is something “out there” that is going to get you and that you have no control over it, that you can do nothing to stop the inevitable storm that is going to destroy you.
These fears often leave you in a very bad place in your life, because they plunge you into this dark hole of depression, anxiety and stress ...
David describes something of this fear in Psalm 55:3-5 “I am terrified by the threats of my enemies, crushed by the oppression of the wicked. They bring trouble on me; they are angry with me and hate me. I am terrified, and the terrors of death crush me. I am gripped by fear and trembling; I am overcome with horror.” (Do you recognize it ...?)
FEAR IS NOT FROM GOD
The irony is that fear - to be afraid - did not come into Adam en Eve’s lives as part of human existence in paradise before sin. It was not part of man's vocabulary or experience.
For fear does not come from God - 2 Timothy 1:7 says, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
Fear is the work of satan, fear is something caused by satan through the lies he plants in people's heads - and what they then believe.
After the fall - Adam and Eve hid from God (as if one could ever do that – see Psalm 139). God calls to Adam and asks him: Where are you? (Genesis 3:9). God is not playing hide and seek here - He knew exactly what they were trying to hide.
What God is asking: Where are you at this point in your life? Why are you here where you are now? How did it happen that you got scared? (Genesis 3:10 And the man answered, "I heard thee walk in the garden, and I was afraid ...") It was never part of his life, but now fear has overtaken him ...
Adam blames Eve, and Eve blames the serpent ("The serpent deceived me, and I ate." - Genesis 3:13)
Eve hits the nail on the head: I lent my ears to satan and fell for his lies. Now I find myself in a place in my life where I am filled with fear ...
ELIJAH IN THE CROSSFIRE
This is the same question God asks Elijah after dealing with Baal prophets:
1 Kings 19:2,9 - Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, “May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.” Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.
...he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God. There he went into a cave and spent the night. The Lord appears to Elijah and the word of the Lord came to him: “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
God asks Eliah: What happened that you are now here at this time in your life, full of fear and despair instead of faith and hope?
See, Elijah fell into the same trap as Adam and Eve. He lent his ears to satan who said to him: Elijah, you know Jezebel - nothing and no one escapes her revenge – you had your chips, and even God will not be able to save you from her clutches ...
Because that's how satan engenders fear in us.
He fills our minds with lies and half-truths, thereby shifting our focus from God to our own human weaknesses, inability, and shortcomings.
He fills our heads with negative thoughts such as:
• "this thing is too much for me, I cannot go on any longer;" or:
• "I cannot see how there will ever be a solution to this problem;" or:
• "I am not able to handle it - this thing is going to kill me literally and figuratively;"
• "What did I do to deserve it - why does God punish me like that?"
And then satan lets our inner talk (those negative conversations with ourselves grinding around in our heads) pull us down into this deep hole of fear and depression.
• To Elijah he whispers (1 Kings 19): You cannot win against Jezebel, you are too weak ...
• To Elisha's servant, when the king of Aram's soldiers surrounded them in Dothan, he whispers (2 Kings 6): The army is too large, you will be be overwhelmed and surely die today ...
• To the Israelites, who hide in holes in the ground for fear of Goliath, he whispers (1 Samuel 17): You have no chance against Goliath - he will flatten you with his little finger - nothing you can do will make him disappear - he cannot be overcome, accept it and lie down so that he can destroy you ...
• To the disciples who see Jesus walking on the water, he whispers (Matthew 14): It's a ghost, you are doomed - say your last prayer ...
FEAR IS UNBELIEF
There is nothing that can extinguish faith faster than fear, because fear makes you turn your eyes away from God, it makes you look at the waves that seem to overwhelm you ...
Therefore, fear is nothing but unbelief; because you think (and begin to believe) that
• God is not in a position to save you
• God will not take care of you
• God will not pick you up and carry you through dark depths, when you are going through difficult times
• God's miraculous power was limited to the Bible and that God will not (or cannot) cause a miracle to happen in your situation.
• God is not able to change your situation and put you back on your feet, to heal your broken heart, to restore relationships, to flatten your persecutors ...
In fact, you believe the lies that Satan imprints in your head, rather than the trustworthy word of God and His promises ...
Therefore, fear is nothing but a motion of no confidence in God ...
When you allow satan to fill your mind with all these negative lies, you are overwhelmed by a spirit of fear ... it gets a foothold in your life and begins to dominate your whole life. This spirit of fear becomes a self-destructive lifestyle that makes you experience no hope, no joy of life and no victory.
Let me ask you this:
• When did God ever leave you? Name it.
• By what trial did God not carry you? Name it.
• Name one day that God did not take care of you ...
FEAR CAN ONLY BE OVERCOME BY FAITH
The opposite of fear is not courage or bravery or fearlessness. The opposite of fear is faith:
• faith in God and in His omnipotence, "For men it is impossible, but for God everything is possible." (Matthew 19:26)
• faith in God and in His love for you: God so loved the world ... (John 3:16) For love casts out fear ... (1 John 4:18 - Where there is love, there is no fear, but perfect love casts out fear ...)
It's when you live from faith, that
• your eyes open like Elisha's slave and you see the force of angels around you outnumbering the enemy soldiers by far
• you can say to Goliath like a David: My God is bigger and stronger than you - if you knew what was waiting for you, you would rather have fled now ...
It's when you live from faith, that you say with
• Psalm 27:1 - The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is my refuge, whom shall I fear?
• Psalm 18:30 - With your help I will make a mighty storm, with my God with me no city wall is too high for me.
• Hebrews 13:5-6 - God Himself said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Therefore we may say with confidence, The Lord is my helper; I know no fear: what can man do to me?
It's when you live from faith, that you believe God when you are flat on your face and feel that you just no longer have enough strength to stand up, that you believe God when He says: “My grace is sufficient for you. My strength comes into full effect when you are weak. ” (2 Corinthians 12:9)
It's when you live from faith that you tackle the Goliaths of life with the knowledge: I am more than a conqueror through Jesus who loves me (Romans 8:37).
It is when you live by faith that you know: no matter how hard life is, you know that hardship cultivates perseverance, and perseverance cultivates genuineness of faith, and genuineness of faith cultivates hope ... (Romans 5:3-4 )
It's when you live from faith, that in the times when you feel that everything and everyone has let you down, that you hold on to the fact that God is the Father who has mercy on us and is the God who gives courage in every circumstance. In every trouble He encourages us, says 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.
Fear is banished when you begin to believe God and His promises rather than believing satan and his lies - when you begin to take God at His word, when you allow the Spirit of God to control your life instead of the spirit of fear.
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?
Life has its hardships that sometimes have you against the boards. No one denies it.
Life often has its crying moments - it's true ...
In such times you live either in fear or in faith.
Either you believe satan, or you believe God...
Either you believe satan's lies or you believe God's promises.
It's one or the other - it cannot be both.
CHOOSE TODAY WHO YOU BELIEVE ...
because it will determine whether you will live in despair and fear for the rest of the year and whether you will live in faith and hope ...
