The Invention of Fear
July 9, 2013 Leave a comment
“The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever leans on, trusts in, and puts his confidence in the Lord is safe and set on high.” Proverbs 29:25 AMP
“Fear-an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger usually accompanied by a desire to flee or flight; an anxious feeling; a feeling of profound respect for someone or something ex. fear of God”
“Snare-something deceptively attractive that catches you unawares.”
I was awaken in the middle of the night because I heard my wife was talking in her sleep. She had a bad dream. A zombie was chasing her and my daughter. It feels literally that she was out of breath and was panting as if it was real.
The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is grab my iPhone and open the youversion app and read the message for today. Today’s message is about fear and what a perfect fit for the answer to her dream-“fear God and not man”.
Today marks the 2nd day of us having to wake up in each other’s arms. She previously worked nightshift at the hospital for such a long time that we really missed living like a normal couple. A good perk with her new workplace, a Monday-Friday day job, 8-5.
I came home yesterday with questions about the crash of Asiana flight 214. The incident hits home to me personally because we use that route to travel to Cebu almost every year. We fly to Incheon all the time now because we use Korean Air as our airline since they uses Dallas as port of entry and makes our trip to Austin to just less than an hour.
Somehow, the family was affected indirectly by the accident but I knew that I can hear their fears inside. When I explained to them how the accident happened, they were so attentive about the explanation.
Fear was invented to produce an action-“fight or flee”. But sometimes if fear is not dealt with and explained, we human beings will attempt to play that fear over and over and it becomes an obsession. When fear becomes an obsession, it drives us to act or respond abnormally even though the subject of our fear is not even present. There is a purpose of fear but when we give fear too much attention, it normally brings us unpleasant experiences.
Fear will always be there with us. It has its purpose, just don’t play it over and over in your thoughts. Turn on to the next page and continue living.
There is a different type of fear known to us. The fear of The Lord. The Bible’s meaning is -” the fear of The Lord is the beginning of Wisdom”. It looks deep and hard to explain but play that sentence over and over in your head and you will understand the meaning. It means “profound respect” to God. Knowing God is knowing His Wisdom and knowing His Wisdom makes you wiser than ever.
Be fearful… In a good way!
See it at YouVersion.com: