Fear of the Unknown

I am your problem solver, says the Lord. Bring your problems and questions to Me, and I will show you the way of resolution and direct your steps. Your part is to trust Me and refuse to be afraid or doubt My willingness or ability to bring you through every dilemma. Nurture your faith. This is a paraphrase of Proverbs 3:1-26

Fear of the unknown is something I think everyone experiences at some point in their lives. If can range from being just a little anxious about starting that new job, to a paralyzing fear that causes you—not to obey God. Hindering fear is tricky and very dangerous. I use the term “hindering fear” because all fear is not bad. “Fear of the Lord” is a good thing. Fear of roaming the streets all hours of the night by yourself because something bad could happen to you is a good and wise fear. So, I just want to clarify that all sense of fear is not bad or crippling.

The one thing that I’ve recently come to realize is that fear can pop up from what seems to be nowhere. Recently there have been a lot of fires in my neighborhood. (Mostly apartment buildings but also some houses.) And that’s not the worst of it, there's a large fire somewhere every week to start off the morning news. And now all of a sudden I found myself worrying about fire and the loss of everything. I really had to sit down and have a talk with “self” and find out what is going on?

There’s been a fear of loss ever since I was forced out of my apartment about 6 years ago, due to no fault of my own. It proved to be one of the most challenging times in my spiritual life. Last year when Women’s Bible Study started on “Trusting God” it came up that I really didn’t trust God the way I thought I did. And after looking at why I felt this way, I found I had a fear that He might allow me to lose my possessions and privacy as He had before. It was sort of a surprise that after all theses years, I really hadn’t gotten over what had happened to me. After much prayer and tears I thought I had dealt with it, but I guess not, because now I find myself being concerned about having a fire and losing everything. Not our lives, just our home and possessions. So when I saw the above paraphrase of Proverbs 3, it immediately hit home.

I now know I have more work to do concerning this fear that lies within me. In the reality of God’s scheme of things…so what? I mean so, what if I lose my possessions again? So, what if I have to move when I hadn’t planned for it? Because in the midst of all that went on during that time of trial and testing of who I thought God to be, He never failed me. He never left me. But!! It still seems that deep in one of the crevices of my heart a seed of “fear of the unknown” has taken root. A much deeper root than I first thought.

The good thing about all of this is God has given me the ability to fight this fear and doubt that is trying to control me and the quality of my life. I have His Word to stand on, and Him to lean on. Fear is a defeatable foe, as long as we are willing to acknowledge we are fearful and work to get to the root of why? In order to give it to God and stand it down we must know the root cause of our fear. Because if we don’t get it at the root then like any weed, it will continue to pop up and try to takeover.

Some of you right now are dealing with the “fear of the unknown” because so many things are so uncertain in this world today. And I hope that I have encouraged you in the fact that you are not alone, but mainly that you have the victory over fear. Think of fear as a weed, and the Word of God as the extra strength weed killer. You spray it and walk away, when you go back it is dead. Our faith, (when nourished and feed) can work the same way.

This is why it is so very important that we read our Bibles to really know who God is and how He works. Not what others tell us, but what His Word tells us.



Love & Hugs
Ponnie

See you tomorrow!