Military life offers plenty of opportunities to fear. Without question this world we live in provides endless sources of fear and opportunities to fear; for instance, pestilence, disease, famine, spiders, and snakes; as well as wars, bullets, hidden bombs, riots, and anarchy; indeed, even alleged friends who may be enemies in hiding. It is no wonder people feel stress or hyper vigilance after trauma. I write to you brothers and sisters to encourage you toward a fuller biblical understanding of fear: to know that in Christ we can live courageous lives with fear properly harnessed.
Fear as a Gift
Fear can be a life-giving response to dangerous situations. For example, I worked as a carpenter on the Lewiston-Queenston Bridge which connects the US and Canada spanning across the dangerous Lower Niagara River. It is 370 feet from the peak of the bridge to the raging rapids below. While on that job I would watch the red-tail hawk soaring in search of its food… from above him! With the bright sun blazing, his tail would seem to burst with flames as from a rocket. While it was a thrill to see such a sight it came at the cost of life-threatening danger. At the beginning of the project we built a safety deck under the arch of the bridge. Section by section we would reach over the edge to assemble a folded framework which we would swing out into the open sky, slide out sheets of plywood to bolt down, walk out to chain the new section to the arch of the bridge, and then do it again. Each section brought us higher into greater danger. Fear of falling kept us safe. Fear prompted alertness, caution, and the surging of adrenaline. Fear decidedly caused us to strap on our safety harnesses and tie off. Admittedly the tingling of fear remained but within the harness we were able to get the job done.
Fear as an Enemy
In striking contrast fear, without a proper harness, can become a powerful paralyzing enemy against the children of God. In fact, the history books of the Bible show many men, many kings, failing in their God given commands under the power of fear. As God Almighty constructed the Nation of Israel, he was careful to encourage the family of Abraham saying, “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield…” (Genesis 15:1), and to Isaac, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you…” (Genesis 26:24). Apart from God’s help fear would have paralyzed these men and others. To help us the Holy Spirit writes, “fear not” 34 times from Genesis to Revelation and “do not fear” another 37 times. Why is God careful to encourage his children throughout history? Because we have his work to do for his glory (Eph 2:10) and much of it is frightening. Without a safety harness strapped on and tied off fear can paralyze.
Fear of Our God
The Holy Spirit through Luke records the incarnate Christ teaching on fear.
“I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7 Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”
Luke 12:4–7
When we encounter a passage like this it is good for us to consider it with careful unrushed prayer and meditation. In this instance we will understand that Jesus is teaching us to NOT fear anything created. If we think further, we will recognize that everything on the face of this earth is created… people, things, circumstances. Do NOT fear them. We are, rather, to fear the LORD our Creator!
Harnessing Fear
The “fear of the LORD” is another phrase popular with the Holy Spirit appearing 29 times in the Bible, 14 of which are in the Book of Proverbs. All my life I have struggled to understand that phrase. The clearest explanation comes from Jerry Bridges in The Transforming Power of the Gospel, a book I highly recommend. He writes, “The Fear of the Lord: simple definition ‘a profound reverence for God that results in a life that is seeking to please God’” (p. 108). In other words, before we seek to please God, we are to first fear God with intense extreme reverence. That fear is our safety harness!
Jay Adams teaches how to strap on the fear of the LORD and where to tie it off when he writes, “”To fear God is to acknowledge His awe-inspiring greatness and power. It is to see one’s self over against Him as a helpless, frail, dependent creature. But it is also to recognize that in Christ, one has God – that mighty Being – at his side and on his side” (The Practical Encyclopedia of Christian Counseling). To put Adams’ first statement bluntly, when we think more highly of ourselves than we ought (Romans 12:3) we cannot think highly enough of God. He is Creator, we are his creation (Gen 1-2, Romans 9). God is high, we are low (Psalm 99). Understanding this reality is the first step both in fearing him with reverence and in pleasing him. (For help in this truth meditate on the cited passages.) After Adams calls us to correct our view of God and self, he points us to the saving grace we find in the Gospel. That is, the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ which makes the power and strength of God accessible to all who believe and call upon his name (Acts 2:21). God the Son is our tie off point. In Christ you are safe (John 18:9)!
In short, you are of more value than many God created sparrows. Tie off to the Resurrected Son and fear not!