Be Careful of Fear

Job 3

“For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” (v. 25)

Fear is often thought of as the opposite of faith. Job feared one thing in his life, and had it on his mind often, until it finally came to pass. Be careful what you fear for. There is a specific promise in the Bible concerning all our fears, there are multitudes of promises for our safety; our comfort; our protection; our provision; our health; our victory; our deliverance; concerning death, and many more things which we often fear or fear being without. When we fear, we ignore God’s promises. That is unbelief. Job knew these promises too, and lived in them, and trusted them, but the one thing he feared was that he would lose all that the Lord had blessed him with. That is the very thing that Satan used to try to destroy him—that which he feared most. What have we to fear that the Lord hasn’t already taken care of by promise? Don’t allow unbelief and fear to leave a weakness in your armor; be assured that if you do, Satan will find it. He cannot destroy our souls, or take us to his hell, but he can make going to Heaven seem like a rough road for us. This is the real danger of fear.

Some 62 times in the New Testament, our Lord tells us to “fear not.” He does not like fear, but would rather see faith in us. There are 269 “fear not’s” in the Old Testament. It looks as if Jesus would not want us to fear! Be aware that Satan can use fear for an inroad to your emotions. Much destruction has resulted from fear. In Revelation 21:8, we see that the fearful are among the citizens of hell! It is much more profitable for us to have faith than to embrace fear, yet opposites must exist. If there were no evil, we would not know right; if there were no bad, we could not define “good”. Opposites reveal opposites. The contrast is the greatest proof of anything useful. Along the same lines, if there were no hell, we would not appreciate, or even need, Heaven. Even so, fear creates a greater need for faith.