Does God make fear go away?

Fear itself is an escape response to life. We've all been afraid. In those moments, as if by instinct, we either ran away from or got angry at whatever we were afraid of. We wanted a way out. If we prayed, our request was likely a request to make it go away.

This seems to make good sense. But what are we really asking? Generally our fears have an object or a source. An example might be job loss or being diagnosed with a serious illness. What would it mean for God to make the fear go away? It seems we tend to think in terms of finding steady employment or being healed of disease. Then we wouldn't be afraid.

Sometimes we are afraid of being afraid. In these times the object of our fear is hard to put a finger on. To ask God to make it go away sounds even more reasonable than with the more specific fears. It may be that God in his mercy does exactly that. Jesus spoke to the waves and calmed the sea relaxing the fear that gripped his disciples.

I believe more often God has a different solution to our fears. Reading your bible from front to back you'll notice that God speaks in terms of relationship. He says that he is our God and we are his people. And when addressing the fears of his people he tells us that he is near. He says that he will be with us. God told Moses that his presence would go with him as Moses prepared for a very frightening mission (Ex. 33:12-16).

Instead of making the fearful thing go away God promises to be with Moses. In a very interesting statement about temptation God says that he will "provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Cor. 10:13). When he speaks of a way of escape we expect that he is about to promise exactly what we're after. And then there's another phrase which qualifies the escape. This speaks of being able to endure the temptation. Endurance in this sense means he will enable us to face and live through the temptation without giving in to it. Considering the potential danger of attempting to rescue God's people from enslavement in Egypt God promises his presence to calm Moses' fear. Yes, in fact, God did eventually remove the thread of the Egyptians but there were plenty of scary moments before that happened.

The relational answer God provides for our fear is Jesus Christ. He is Emanuel which means God with us. In the spirit of "that you may be able to endure it", Jesus our Shepherd wants us to know him and his presence. The desire of Christ's heart is that we as the sheep of his pasture would become so reliant on him that we would trust him. His purposes in our suffering may be many. but one thing we know in our suffering with fear, he is training us to trust him. Scripture says that afflictions happen to "make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead" (2 Cor. 1:9). Trusting Christ and believing in his presence we can walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil (Ps. 23:4). When we're afraid we reach out to Christ in faith, calling on him to confess our longing to know his presence with us (Acts 17:27).

We are not stuck!

This is powerful, really. I read a blurb Paul Tripp wrote about a new book by Tim Chester. In the blurb Paul said, "It's wonderful to be reminded that you and I are not stuck..." The book is about change as Paul goes on to describe. What arrested me was the phrase that we are "not stuck". I immediately remembered by previous post on this blog about being stuck, repeatedly getting in the way rather than being an instrument in the Redeemer's hands.

An hour later I was trying to sing a hymn my wife and I recently looked at together. This was while driving towards an office with a group of people who were very frustrated with some software I am trying to help them learn. A thought with the word "specific" passed through my mind, likely from the "Dynamics of Biblical Change" course we took from CCEF a couple of years ago. Still muttering the refrain from the hymn, "He is able, He is able, He is willing, doubt no more, " I stopped and asked Jesus specifically to help me not personalize their frustration with the software. I declared aloud that I was not going to doubt but to believe Jesus Christ in me to empower me to not personalize the feelings of others in the place I was headed. I was not stuck today, I moved ahead by God's grace. I did not personalize their anger towards the product but sympathized with their difficulty and prayed for wisdom to know how to help. Praise Him!

The lesson here, to me at least, is that it is way too vague to say I continue to get in the way so I'm stuck. The focus has to be much more intense, down to the level of specific temptation and struggle. In the context in which I spent my day today, I often get in the way because I personalize the complaints of others and end up angry and even more frustrated than they. And today, by God's grace, in this one specific sinful response, I asked Jesus Christ for help and He helped me in a very real way.

Usability Testing

Part of testing software is determining the usability of an application. Will the end user be able to work with the software to accomplish the desired end? A conscious awareness of my own weakness seems to be the only way I will honestly seek Christ by faith in day-to-day living. I mean by this seeking, as David Powlison says, "...at street level." In actual living, real time, I will not likely seek Christ to live in and through me unless I sense my own inadequacy. The process of testing software involves breaking it in order to reveal what needs to change. God's process of breaking us is designed, at least in part, to reveal what in my heart needs to change. So through the painful experience of my own weakness God shows me what He wants to change in my heart. And as that change, which is an on-going process, takes place, I become usable by God in new ways.

I'm still in the way, and I feel stuck here

One way that I get in the way when attempting to speak truth to others is through my becoming angry when the recipient of my "truth speaking" does not respond in repentance and faith. This post represents a huge time gap in my blogging. It does not reflect a gap in my interest in growth in grace so that I might become a useful instrument of truth speaking in the hands of the Redeemer. I am, however, struck by the fact that I do not seem to have made any significant progress in this growth process. I still at times and with certain people become angry when their response is unrepentant and unbelieving. To that I have nothing new to write today. I guess my previous post either doesn't work or I haven't implemented it. Oh God, help. I am still too often stuck in the fallacious rut of believing that I am responsible to effect change in others by speaking your truth to them. Please empower me by your Holy Spirit so that Christ might dwell in my heart by faith and so that I may be transformed by the renewing of my mind.

How to stay out of the way

A cable must remain in a state of great tension in order to support the weight of the balancing performer. I too feel tension. Either I want to use my words to take control or I want to use my words to say, “OK, fine. See you never.” To say anything that God might use in some small way to help another see requires that I walk amidst tension. A highly practiced individual may walk a narrow cable with such apparent ease that no one is aware of the tension. Only by the supernatural grace of God can I exude love and peace while walking in great tension. If the tension of my wanting to take control runs the show, aggressive words will flow and increase the tension between us to the level that the other person no longer hears and maybe flees. Or maybe I cave in under the tension that my foolish desires for control have produced and I run away from the one who can’t see. Oh God help! Make me lie down in green pastures and walk beside quiet waters. You are Lord, you are in control. I want to serve, please speak through me that others might see Christ.

Why I get in the way

It seems that one reason I get in the way is that I somehow believe the force of my logic or the sharp edge to my words will bear fruit in others' lives. This obviously reveals a false hope in my ability rather than trust in the only true hope which is in God alone. I get in the way because I have deluded myself into thinking that I have to do something. But I have no power to effect lasting change at the level of the heart of another. God has not given me that responsibility. My speaking truth in love may be a part of what he is doing in someone else’s life or not.

“But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.” Jeremiah 17:7 Father, I do not want to continue to be a hindrance in other people’s life. I do want to offer the hope of the gospel and I know I must do so by faith in you. I pray for your help in understanding how to be a part of what you’re doing and trusting solely in your great goodness.

When I get in the way

One of the biggest obstacles to my speaking truth to others in a helpful way has been my personal response to the other person's issue. Yes, you can very quickly say, "Ah ha, you're just judgmental." And many times that's true. However, by the grace of God I am attempting to grow beyond legalistic judgmentalism in order to speak to others in a way that might help them in their life. Is it judgmental to steer a visually impaired person around a dangerous obstacle that wasn't in their path yesterday?

My fear or concern for the well being of another quickly morphs into sinful anxiety. At that point I am rendered nearly useless as an instrument of truth speaking. I will very likely distort the very truth I desire to speak by my fearful and unbelieving heart attitude. Oh Lord, help.