‘Fear’, the dictionary tells us is.’…an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.’
H.A. Overstreet said, a generation ago, that “to fear and to hate is to be psychologically ill.. and it has become, in fact, the consuming illness of our time.”
Fear is, in one way or another, consuming us. Angry mobs protest everything they disagree with, terrorists kill without mercies those whose views differ from theirs, and, the streets where we once wandered so freely have now become an unsuitable place for our women and children. Fear has become the mood of the day.
Roosevelt said that all we had to fear was fear itself, but F.D.R. did not live in 21st century America. Is fear a bad thing? Is fear to be feared?
Proverbs 19:23.. tells us that we need not fear for life, because He watches over us..”The fear of the LORD leads to life, So that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil”
And in Psalm 103:11 we find that love is actually found in abundance within that fear…. “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His loving kindness toward those who fear Him”
Certainly, we live in a fearsome time, and the days are evil, no doubt about it. But fear is fearsome because fear has been misplaced. We have come to fear people and ideas rather than to fear the Lord.
Psalm 27:1 sows it all up.. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?.
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