Fearful

It fascinates me how fearful we are. Almost anything makes us afraid. Fear is one of the enemies best weapons against faith and trust in God. At any one moment I would guess we each have something in the back of our minds connected to or caused by fear. It's the plague of the fallen race of men.

From those fears we imagine all kinds of ghosties and monsters. Fear connected with imagination is a terrible thing. I hear the stories often of fear based events that surely will happen....all based on our imaginations fired by the fear of our moments.

One of the great stories of the bible is in 2 Kings 7. It's a story of what happens when fear and imagination combines to create imaginary monsters. Here's the portion of the story I want to talk about,

"When they got to the edge of the camp, surprise! Not a man in the camp! God had made the army of Aram hear the sound of horses and a mighty army on the march. They told one another, "The king of Israel hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to attack us!" Panicked, they ran for their lives through the darkness, abandoning tents, horses, donkeys—the whole camp just as it was—running for dear life."

All it took to put an army on the run are the sounds of war from God. There were no horses, no soldiers, no monsters close, but with a sound of horses, the rattle of swords, the sounds of an army approaching their fears were given story and here's what they imagined, "The king of Israel hired the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to attack us!"

None of that was true, but it was enough to get their imaginations going and the result? "Panicked, they ran for their lives through the darkness, abandoning tents, horses, donkeys—the whole camp just as it was—running for dear life." A few noises from the Lord, a little fear mixed in and their imaginations did the rest.

How often do we do that? How often do the sounds of war, the worries of the stock market, the angry words of a wife or the problems of a child cause our fears to write the end of the story and we flee when no one is pursuing? Fear is a wicked monster with no substance. It causes panic, flight and abandon. It causes us to write a story that is only imagined by the fear we feel. We are a fearful little race. Fear dominates our lives and actions more than we know. I think that's why Jesus' words for us are so profound,

Mark 5:36 "Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe."

Luke 12:32 "Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom."

Don't be afraid. The one who holds the future holds your hand. All will be well. Don't be afraid.