Pathways Press.com

Written by John Ortberg, a contemporary pastor, speaker, and writer. This is an excerpt from his book “Steps.”

Fear seems to get into everything. We have a yellow lab named Baxter who is a wonderful dog except that he sheds recreationally…Fear is that way. It sheds. That little word somehow touches about every aspect of our lives. It is an evil and corroding thread; the fabric of our existence is shot through it. The first temptation in the Bible was based on FOMO (the fear of missing out): “Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.”  And then sin produced fear. “I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” FOMO – sin – guilt—fear—hide—repeat…Our fears have a way of hiding behind our actions…Don’t allow fear to exist as a vague, unnamed cloud of anxiety… As long as we are alive we will never live a fear-free life. Part of surrender involves the willingness to experience fear while we continue to seek to do God’s will…Fear rightly used, is a gift. It is the anticipation of harm. It’s designed to help us organize our response to threat and energize us to escape from danger. Without fear we wouldn’t survive…But as a general rule, fear paralyzes us…In the Bible “Do not fear” is the single most common command. But it pretty much never means “try really hard to not feel fear.” And it pretty much never means “God is now permitting you to avoid a fear-inducing situation so that you can be spared unpleasant fear.” It almost always means “Do the very thing you were afraid to do”: Don’t be afraid…The promise in not that we will be spared discomfort of fear. Quite the opposite. It’s that precisely in the midst of that discomfort we will discover that God is with us. When we turn our live over to Him, fear-avoidance no longer governs…Honestly facing up to your shortcomings is the most humbling and courageous thing you’ll ever do.

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  [Isaiah 41:10]