The Fear of God: The Negative Fear
The Fear of God: The Negative Fear
Text: Psalms 34:4-5, Luke 1:19-21, Psalms 46:1-3.
Memory Verse: “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?” Psalms 27:1.
Negative fear only exits in the absence of faith. This fear did not come from God but from sin after Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the forbidden fruit; since then the devil uses sin to create fear in the heart of everyone. As children of God the phrase ‘do not be afraid” appears over 350 times in the bible; assuring us that He is always with us if we do not live in sin. Negative fear brings a lot of harmful things our way; the devil uses it to afflict people in their health, businesses, career and families by making them feel they have been rejected by God and do not stand a chance to be forgiven.
Negative fear in the life of a child of God makes everything look impossible to achieve. Fear in this sense makes God unhappy because it makes you lose your trust in Him; fear here is not the opposite of faith or courage, it is the response to a threat or danger be it physical or spiritual. We react to a dangerous situation with fear because we do not want to get hurt. For instance, when you are in a bus and the driver loses control of the brakes, the first thing that comes to your mind is an accident occurring and you probably getting injured or even die. Or when you encounter a dangerous and wild animal like snake, scorpions, lion etc. fear comes in because you feel that you will get hurt or die.
Daily study, declaring God’s word and believing in God’s unfailing love will cast out fear 1John 4:18.
Prayer: God help me to love you more because perfect love for you will cast out fears from my heart. Amen.
Author: Sis Chiamaka Ebenezer
