Have just studied fear for over a week. Interviewed 4 people on subject. Now I have more questions than answers. What I know: fear is an emotion that affects all of us motivating us toward faith, fight, flight, or freeze. Fear pushes us to develop behavioral responses that can become habits. We generally minimize or exaggerate fear, and therefore respond with some inappropriateness to reality. The Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The most repeated command of the Bible is "Do not be afraid" or "Fear not." (42 times) What I am thinking about: How can I identify my own fears and their significance in my life? Is the love of the Lord the perfection (or end) of wisdom (1 John 4..."There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear". I tend to minimize my fear of God. I think of Him as a loving Father rather than the scary person He could be. If I have a proper fear of God will that help put my other fears in perspective? Want to know how I can realistically evaluate my fears so that I respond to fear in a way that helps and does not hurt the enjoyment I have in life.
1 comment:
HPaul, Nice blog! I think you're talking about two different kinds of fear in this post. I believe (without the benefit of understanding the ancient languages) that fear in the context of "Fear God" is different from the being afraid of the dark kind of fear. Am I right?
Fearing God has more to do with awe and respect and proper knowledge of who God is; but fear as we typically use it has to do with dread and anxiety--being scared. I fear pain, or failure, or embarrassment. I'm afraid of the dark; Mr. Peevie's afraid of big dogs.
Not that we never need dread God--we certainly do if we are not right with him. But to me it's not the same.
And one other point: Once I heard a guy on the radio claim that the underlying motive for everything we do is fear. I think there's a lot of truth in that.
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