As a pastor of a smaller church for close to the past three years, I have learned a lot about people already. While they have different interests, abilities, goals, and personalities, they also hold a few things in common across the board.
The two contrasting similarities that come to mind at this writing is that most have a strong and genuine love of Jesus, as well as a significant amount of fear. This is surprising to me when you consider all the Bible has to say on the subject of fear for those who believe in Him.
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
“For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:10).
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love” (1 John 4:18).
“I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4).
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9).
This is but a smattering of what the Bible says about fear. The message seems clear:
God does not want us to be afraid.
Back to my experience with people of the church. Many of them live with fear of all types.
So, what can I do as a pastor? Tell them not to do that and quote them six verses? It’s true; that might help a few of them out. But most are gripped by fear. They would love nothing more than to let it go, but since they are the ones who feel gripped, such simple advice won’t produce the results desired.
I have realized that in order for people to let go of their fears, they have to find ways to face them.
I know a man who for many years was ravaged by drugs and alcohol. In our conversations, he confessed that he had given his life to Jesus as a teenager, but that a series of events occurred in his life that caused him to stray from following Him. He experienced some real trauma, and he turned to substance abuse to try and make the experiences go away. Twenty years later, he found himself still very afraid of the world around him even though he had beaten the drugs and alcohol. One of the things he was afraid of was social interactions. The larger the group of people in a room, the more anxious he became.
I encouraged him to participate in a church small group of about 8 people, and he reluctantly agreed. Please understand how painfully afraid he was to go into that room with those people that night. He could not control his breathing for the first fifteen minutes.
Many months later, however, that man found a way to offload his fear. He was not only okay with the small group, but he started to love being with larger groups. Today, he frequently speaks on stage at his home church and has no problem being in a room with hundreds of people.
The point being that facing fear requires a high desire to not live in bondage to it. It requires a willingness to do something that you feel incapable of because on some level you believe that your fear is telling you a lie.
So make a list of some things that you are afraid of. Place them in a column on your sheet. Then to the right of them, identify one or two ways that you can do something that would allow you to face that fear. Make them realistic; If you are afraid of heights, the first thing on your list might not be skydiving.
But when you allow yourself to try the things that frighten you, you may also find that you found a practical way of living out all those verses that encourage us to live a life free from fear.