overcomingfear

OVERCOMING FEAR: Matthew 6:25 - 34

Anyone who lives in worry, lives in fear and such persons find it difficult to trust in God. In this world there are many things that one can be worried or fear of. For example:

     1.   The fear of losing one's wealth, health, dear ones...etc.
     2.   The fear of not having enough of anything or everything.
     3.   The fear of being look down upon or being despise by.
.....and the list goes on..... .

Those who worry are those who are being dominated by the fear of losing anything so much so that they spend most of their time seeking ways and means to prevent it from happening which resulted in them losing sight of God and His Righteousness. Infact it is the fear in them that makes them lose their confidence and trust in God; doubting if God really exists or that He is helping them. This act of fear often leads them to make hasty decisions within their own means instead of submitting to God's will. This lead to them falling away from their faith.

So how should one not fall away from the grace of God through fear?

To begin with, let us first understand the world and the people living in it. Living in this world is like living in the devil's den - in darkness. Nothing good comes out of it. Just as it was written: Do not love the world and the things in it. Anyone who does so, the love of God is not in him.

It should be understood that nothing that is of this world is really worth living for; be it wealth, power, status...etc.

Does that mean that there is no hope for the human race? NO. For thanks be to God that He has given us a way out in His Son, Jesus, who came as the Light which shines into the darkness for all of us. It is because of this Light (Jesus), penetrating through and conquering over the darkness, that whosoever receives It will too become light through Him. Does it end here? NO. For those who have received this Light, they must let it be reflected upon those who are still in the same darkness (Share in the joy of having Christ in them) so that they too could come forth to receive Jesus, the Light, and be able to see in the darkness. By seeing, I mean the ability to see the filthiness of this world and no longer living them.

The next step to not falling away from God's grace is to understand how this Light is going to help us in living out our lives in this present world that we are in.

Jesus said that if we remain in Him, He will remain in us. That is the KEY! If we continue to live in Him, we will never fall away. If we remain in Him, there is nothing that we should be worry or fear of. Why so?

In John 16:33, Jesus gave us this confidence in that He has already overcome the world and that we are to take heart even if there is any trouble that we may face in our lives. Take another careful look at this verse. Jesus infact did not promise us that we would be free from trouble once we are in Him. Rather He warned that there will be trouble but that we should not worry over them for He has overcome them for us.

Since Jesus has already overcome the world, what is there to worry or fear of if we dwell richly in Him and the righteousness of God? Satan is already a defeated being! So is this world and the evils in it!

Furthermore, we, who are now His, are no longer of this world (belonging to it) although we are still living in it. This is the promise given to us by Jesus (John 15:19 & John 17:14 - 19). In whatever we do, Jesus is always walking with us, infact He is always walking ahead of us in time of our troubles, holding our hands behind, so that whatever difficulties that we may faced, He is facing them for us first and carving out a better path for us to walk in as we follow Him along. This understanding should and must enhance our confidence and trust in Him that even though we are still living in the devil's den, we are no longer his but that we belong to Jesus, our Lord, our Saviour and now our Master, who is always there with us!

Let me share with you a true story on how fear could lead a man to fall away from God's grace and in the same story, why fear cannot control a child of God who is faithful and full of confidence in the Lord.

Over 20 years ago, a woman, in her late fifties, was diagnosed with last stage of cancer and has about a few months left to live. This news came as a blow to both this woman and her only daughter, who was only 20 years old then. From that moment, fear slowly began to creep into them but being Christians, they turned to God for help. But as each day passed by, no cure or improvement was seen in the mother and worst still, the daughter felt that God was not responding to her prayers at all. Fear began to take complete control of her that she could not sleep well and concentrate on her work. This eventually led her to losing her job.

In desperation, she turned to the Chinese idols for help by bringing back talisman's paper to be burnt and mixed with water for her mother to drink. She even believed those con men selling 'magic stones' which were believe to be able to cure any sickness and purchased them at exhorbitant prices. She did all these for she felt that God has forsaken her in her difficult times and partly also due to her undying love for her mother.

It was during this period of time that she completely lost sight of God. Instead of trusting Him and obeying His will for her mother, she disobeyed God and fell out of her grace. It was the works of fear in her that caused her fall.

On the other hand, the dying woman although was initially overcame with fear, was fast to realise that this was a part of God's will in her life and that she must go through with it. She trusted God and was submissive to Him inspite of her sickness. She flatly refused all those things that her loving daughter had brought back for her. Instead she advised her daughter to stop doing all these and to go back to the Lord. Sadly, the daughter did not take her advice then. From then on, this dying woman decided to spend the rest of her remaining time fruitfully, serving her church and community till her last breath.

After her death, her daughter hated God even further for taking away her mother's life and for not hearing their prayers then. (Personally, I believe that her late mother realised that God infact did answer her prayers in that He is calling her home and to make use of her remaining time fruitfully. Which she did. I too believed that she died in peace and joy. The only regret that she had, I believe, was that her daughter did not return to the Lord prior to her death.)

Eversince that day, this daughter did not make effort to return to the Lord until this year, 2001, where she came to realise that God has infact never left her or forsake her throughout all these years. She too came to the understanding that it was infact fear which has caused her to fall out of God's grace. Right now, she is back in the arms of the Lord and is continuing to build up her faith where she has left.

When I was told of this true story earlier today while I was working on this piece of message, I rejoiced that this lady, who is now a friend of mine, was once lost but now has been found. Found with the understanding that it is God to whom she should be living for and not the world. Hallelujah!

From this story, I hope that all of you would come to learn of how fear can make a man fall away from God and that we should be like the dying woman whose undying love for the Lord stood firm in time of difficulties and did not allow fear to have control of her.

The next time when you begin to have the feelings of fear creeping into you, remember what you have read today and put your trust in Jesus to deliver you through by going to Him immediately in a prayer. Let Him fill you with His peace and trust Him to guide you through. He will definitely be there to kill your fear sooner than you know of.

Finally, let all of us, who are His, set our hearts to store for ourselves treasures in heaven and not of this world. For where our treasures are, so our hearts will be.

To God be the glory for this message. Amen