052 Fear Not: The Cost of Fear
There’s a particular phrase that’s repeated over and over again in the Christmas story. It’s said to Mary, to Joseph, and to the shepherds.
“Do not be afraid.”
I think a clear message was being sent to them, and to all people who were facing fearful circumstances: “You don’t have to be afraid anymore. No matter how scary things may look, fear not.”
Fear is universal. Every one of us wrestles with it. Not that all fear is bad. There’s a good kind of fear as well.
Good fear protects us from danger and prevents us from hurting ourselves.
The problem is that fear strikes when it’s neither helpful nor wanted. Then it becomes bad fear.
Bad fear paralyzes us from doing what we ought to do and prompts us to do what we ought not to do.
When you delve into the root causes of sin, more times than not you will find fear at the root. Fear that “if I obey God in this circumstance, I’ll lose.”
Pastor and author John Ortberg wrote, “Fear has created more practicing heretics than bad theology ever has, for it makes us live as though we serve a limited, finite, partially-present, semi-competent God.”
Today I’d like for you to see just how costly it really is by looking at a story in Numbers 13. To set the context for you, the Israelites, after having been miraculously delivered from slavery and supernaturally provided for in their two-year trek through the wilderness are now on the threshold of the Promised Land. Sadly, throughout this journey they’ve done nothing but whine and complain, continually giving into their fears instead of growing in their faith.
Moses sent 12 men into Canaan to spy out the land. When they came back, their report was filled with fear. “Giants in the land! Great walled cities! We’ll never be able to conquer them. It’s hopeless!”
But two of the men looked above the giants and saw that God was bigger! Surely, with God’s help, they could take the land.
Sadly, the people chose the path of fear, and it cost them…dearly.
The same is true for us.
Living in fear distorts your identity. When fear becomes your focus, you not only don’t see God for who He is…you don’t see yourself for who you are.
Living in fear limits your progress. In opting not to face their fears…by deciding not to risk uncharted territory…the Israelites sealed their fate. They would go no further and ultimately they failed to fulfill their destiny.
Living in fear robs your joy. Worriers tend to have great imagination, but their imagination runs toward the negative. The little phrase that runs through their mind quite frequently is, “What if . . .?” “What if?” is a joy robber of the highest kind.
Living in fear handicaps your children. A mindset of fear is contagious. It unwittingly gets passed from one generation to the next.
Text: Numbers 13
Originally recorded December 1, 2013, at Fellowship Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, IN.