When we're afraid it triggers our flight or fight response. We either want to run away from danger or face it and defeat it.
Fear can keep us from doing something stupid, taking dangerous chances, or making foolish choices. We stay safe and healthy thanks to our God-given fear reflexes.
But fear can also work against us. In the 1756 A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Edmund Burke said, “No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”
Fear uses our imaginations against us. We're afraid to fail. We're afraid to succeed. We're afraid to reach out to others. We're afraid to be alone. We're afraid of what the future might bring. We're afraid we might not get to see our future. We're afraid to try something new. We're afraid things are changing too fast for us to keep up with.
Comic strip artist Gil Gilcrest on 2-10-2004 said, “Fear imprisons. It is faith that breaks those chains.” The Bible has plenty to say about how to handle fear. People living in Biblical times had plenty to be afraid of, but God was always there for them as He is here for us.
This blog intends to seek out and explore all those "fear not" and "be not afraid" verses and find out how we can apply them to our lives today.
