2-20: Abiding Through Fear

Memoirs of Abiding

Scripture Discussed: Genesis 12:10-20, Genesis 20, Exodus 3 and 4, 2 Peter:1, Romans 8, Psalm 37

Fear is something many Christians still struggle with in their everyday life. Now this is a different fear than that of a sudden circumstance. For example, when you hear a door creek that shouldn’t in your home. That would create a sudden response of fear that something isn’t right. That is different than the continual fear response we see of catastrophes or life-altering events; or the fear that can grip us in a relationship, in our parenting, in our jobs, and in our ministries.

So why do so many Christians live in fear, when the Bible repeatedly tells us to not live in fear? How do we put abiding to the test, walk in the Spirit, and drive out fear? Let’s look at some Biblical examples.

First, we have Abram in Genesis 12:10-20 and Genesis 20. In both passages, we see a sort of “go to” response where Abram steps into his fear of others and what they will do to both he and his wife. He keeps telling the leaders that Sarai is his sister, not his wife. We see Abram shift his eyes and his mind to what those in the world would do to them, rather than setting his eyes, mind, his very being on God alone. What is also interesting, is that prior to these passages, God had given Abram a promise of a son and to make him a father of nations. By continually telling these leaders that Sarai was his sister, and not his wife to preserve both their lives, it’s almost like he needed to protect God’s promise for God. He did not trust God to provide and fulfill His promise in these passages.

Our second example is Moses in Exodus 3 and 4. Moses was letting his fear of returning to Egypt overcome him, rather than Who he was speaking with and Who would be with him in the journey… our God who reigns supreme.

We discuss some common fears that we either see or experience ourselves such as loneliness, fear of parental mistakes, fear of security, fear of perception of others. Reality is most fears can be grouped into either performance or perception. The need to either perform to the standards of the world or look a specific way for the world cause fear responses in us. Both of which are taking our eyes off God, and searching the world for our identity, meaning, purpose, comfort, etc.

Where do these fears come from?
We discuss that these fears are often ones our flesh has been trained to respond with. We all have circumstances or events that can trigger these fears. Sometimes those triggers are from an internal trigger, such as the need to perform and achieve a specific standard. Or the need for others to approve of you. We can also have external triggers such as losing our keys, leaving our wallet at home, forgetting our computers, getting cut off in traffic. Those are all external triggers that can cause a response of fear in us.

So how do we overcome these trained responses, these triggers? By surrendering them to God for healing and running to His Word for transformation. By understanding who we are, and that we are sons and daughters of God. We are heirs to His Kingdom. That is our Identity. Once we understand who we are, we can then see the past triggers and trained response and know that those aren’t our identity. Instead, we can run to God and His Word for His Truth to guides us. We can grow in God, and read His word for transformation, depend on Him, and listen to Him speak life into us.