Two Faces of Fear

“…The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

These now-famous words were spoken in the 1933 Inaugural Address of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Many since have thrown them around lightly, but when FDR uttered them, they resonated with a nation reeling from the devastation of the Great Depression.  Our country was floundering, and the carefree materialism of the early 20’s had given way to a sobering understanding of the fleeting nature of wealth and THINGS. It took ten years, from 1929 to 1939, for things to right themselves.

Fear was the theme of that decade, I am sure.  When you don’t have any idea how you are going to feed your family, let alone keep a roof over your head, your priorities change overnight.  Fear was the companion of many.

Lately, I have been thinking about the Spirit of Fear. Fear paralyzes us, grips our hearts, arrests our minds, until we are immobilized in being able to move forward.  Fear sits right in front of our faces, keeping us from being able to see anything else; it plants itself on our chest like a boulder, and makes simple breathing a difficult task to manage.

Fear is certainly a foe.

A dear friend called me this morning, asking for prayer.  She was, in that moment, in the clutches of Fear.  It covered her like a heavy, saturated blanket—I could hear the desperation in her voice.  But even in her fear, she knew there she has an Advocate who came to deliver us from fear.  We called on the Lord together, and He is faithful!  You could feel the peace that passes all understanding sweep in!  The Prince of Peace came in, and sent the Spirit of Fear packing, like the coward he is.

I got to thinking about Psalm 23, arguably the most recognized scripture in the entire world.  This particular phrase began to resonate in my spirit:

Psalm 23:4a

⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I WILL FEAR NO EVIL;
For You are with me….

In his treatise, The Art of War, famous Chinese general and military strategist Sun Tzu was a proponent of the advantages of taking  the “high ground” during a campaign.  According to Wikipedia, “Fighting from an elevated position is said to be easier for a number of tactical reasons. Holding the high ground offers an elevated vantage point with a wide field of view, enabling surveillance of the surrounding landscape, in contrast to valleys which offer a limited field of view.”

When David penned Psalm 23, he was talking about being in seemingly the worst possible position—the VALLEY of the shadow of FEAR.  One of the things that struck me today, though is that FEAR is a SHADOW.  It feels real and looming and BIG—but it IS just a SHADOW.  If the Enemy could take you out, he would.  But when you walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and JESUS is WITH YOU, there is no need to fear that evil!

What can a SHADOW do to you when the KING of KINGS walks BESIDE YOU?  NOTHING.  Not a single thing!

Remember what Sun Tzu proposed?  When we are in the valley our field of view is LIMITED.  We cannot see the future, the big picture, the way the ones on the high ground can.  They have the vantage point.  The thing is—the reason Fear tries to distract us and make us feel surrounded is precisely BECAUSE THEY KNOW THEY’VE ALREADY LOST.  They just don’t want us to know it, so we will convince ourselves we are already casualties of war!

When we realize though that FEAR is a DISTRACTION from REALITY—and that our General and Commander-in-Chief, the best military strategist to have ever planned a winning campaign WALKS BESIDE US—what do we have to fear?

Just fear itself.

Fear is a distraction, because it causes us to misplace our Godly fear—reverence for the One who holds ALL POWER in His hands, the One who KNOWS the END from the BEGINNING—and it gives in to fear of an individual who has ALREADY LOST.

Honestly, to fear is to admit defeat.  Fearing our circumstances and our situations is to turn our reverence FROM GOD, and to reassign it to, in essence, worshipping the Enemy.  It says, “I recognize that you are more powerful, and that I am unworthy of healing (or deliverance, or blessing, or peace of mind).”   It says that when God talked about His promises to those who follow Him, He didn’t really mean you or me.  That was all for someone else.  It casts doubt on God’s willingness to take care of His own.

And THAT is a LIE from the PIT OF HELL.

When we recognize this, when we stand on the promises of God, and REFUSE to give into fear, we strip the enemy of his last remaining shred of power.  It’s a shadow, anyway.  We usually joke about someone who is afraid of their own shadow.  But I think that is all he has to work with against the Children of God—shadows.

Jesus sees it ALL from the best vantage point of all—heaven.  That’s why He can walk beside us in the Valley, and still be assured of the victory! Rest assured that, as you reverence the Lord, the spirit of fear is put in its proper place: the jaws of DEFEAT.

1 Timothy 1:6-7 NKJV

⁶ Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷ For God HAS NOT GIVEN US A SPIRIT OF FEAR, but of POWER and of LOVE and of a SOUND MIND.

Don’t let the enemy mess with your mind.  God is FOR YOU!