CWW Week 10 - Day 6 - Fear
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Fear
Scripture:
Psalm 27:1 [NKJV]
“The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?”
The Psalms in the Old Testament have been largely attributed to King David who is said to have written most of them. David was chosen by God and has the same blood line as Jesus. Holding this exalted position as being one of the chosen, it seemed that David could do no wrong.
But one hot summers night in Jerusalem, David could not sleep and went out to walk on his roof top balcony. As he looked across the rooftops of his neighbours he noticed a woman bathing in the moonlight. Lust of the flesh overcame him and he fell dramatically.
It has been said that after David was told by the prophet that he knew what he had to do, having broken every commandment in his affair with Bathsheba; That David repented and went into mourning, grieving his turn away from God.
God being true to His word of erasing all sin repented of, restored David back to his exalted position as beloved of God.
There really is truth in Matthew 5:4 which promises us; “Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.”
Now lets go back to Psalm 27:1
David asks the big question at the end. “Of whom shall I be afraid?” Well who can’t relate to David? Certainly the apostle and prolific New Testament writer Paul can. We can see this in the entire chapter of Romans 7 and specifically in verse 15 when Paul writes “ For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice: but what I hate, that I do.”
What is Paul saying here? In simple terms let me paraphrase Paul.
I know Gods’ principles for living in the way I was designed to live, But I keep falling to my old habits which I know are wrong and damaging to my character and my conscience.
I can empathise with Paul and I get where he is coming from. He goes on to say in verse 24 “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” Let me make this simple too. The body of death is the sinful body of the flesh that is consumed by lust for all things. Lust is a desire that overtakes you. It can be for all manner of things not just a desire to be with someone else. Gluttony is a lust for food for example. So when we make the desires of the flesh the priority for living, we risk eternal death at the expense of eternal life.
So lets go back to “Of whom shall I be afraid?”
It’s us. We are our own worst enemies. We know we shouldn’t eat too much sugar; We know we shouldn’t spend on our credit card; We know we shouldn’t pause at the overtly sexual images we see online. But we do.
We know we should appreciate more and complain less; We know we should share more and keep less; We know that we should love more and hate less.
Need I go on?
Our hurts and addictions are all part of the same body and feed each other don’t they? An addiction is a bandage we put on a gaping wound. That wound is a feeling of disconnection; Of not being loved perhaps of fatherlessness. The more we go to the bandage to mask the wound, the bigger the wound gets and the more we desire the addiction.
But if we do as David exhorts us to do in this Psalm and make Jesus the stronghold of our lives, then we must give Him complete power over our worst enemy. Us!
If I fear anyone in this world it’s me, and if you are completely honest, I reckon you would see the same in yourself. Most of the bad things that happened in my life is because I did them, didn’t stop them or enabled them. It was me and in that I am the one who must accept the ultimate responsibility here.
This however does not apply in the abuse of children. My wife Michelle went through an awful aspect of her childhood when she was sexually abused as a child over many years. But now that she has healed the scar tissue still remains. She used to say all the time that if she had only spoken up sooner she could have prevented others from going through what she went through. So again, even here, she was her own worst enemy because there is no way she was responsible. The biggest hurdle she confronts when she helps survivors of abuse is trying to convince them that it wasn’t their fault.
But we become our own worst enemies even in that scenario when in later life we refuse to deal with it. When we carry the pain and self loathing around like a dead corpse polluting the climate of our very existence.
My dear friends, Jesus is the Remedy for all of our pain. He is the eternal solution. He doesn’t want to beat the sin out of you. He desires to love it out of you. He doesn’t want to stand over you, He wants you to come freely and without coercion.
He’s paid the ultimate price for every sin you have ever committed and are likely to commit. All you have to do to deal with the fear of death and of yourself is to accept Him as your higher power and repent of your sins.
God never wastes a hurt and He always keeps His promises.
The choice is ours.
Questions
- What is it about you that you are most fearful of?
- Who or what are you afraid of? You need to name it and put a light on it because you can’t heal a wound by saying it’s not there can you?
- What is your plan today, to face down that fear and conquer it?
Prayer
Dear Lord, Papa God.
Thank you so much Papa for the gift of salvation and the potential that this promise holds to turn me into a conquerer. Supply in me the will of the spirit to overcome the will of the flesh. Renew in me a right heart of flesh and remove my heart of stone. Please Lord give me a fraction of the strength that Jesus had, to carry my sins to the cross. Thank you Lord that even though I have just sinned you still hold me righteous through your son Jesus. Please Papa God, have mercy on my sole for I pray these things to You in the name of Jesus in whom we are all conquerers. Amen.
Graham Hood
