STEPPING INTO OUR FUTURE - PART 6

FACING OUR FEAR

“Do not be afraid (terrified), nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go” (Joshua 1:9b).

To be dismayed means that we have allowed fear to terrify us and break us down, causing us to become confused and ineffective. We have allowed fear to frighten us into inactivity.

Fear sometimes gets a bad name. There is good fear and bad fear. Some Christians believe that if you are really “in the Spirit” or really “exercising faith,” then you are never afraid…and I am telling you to be afraid…very afraid…of people who say stuff like that!

We are instructed in scripture to “fear the Lord,” which means to be “in awe” of the Lord, to be “reverent.” And that’s good fear. I believe we don’t have enough reverence in the church right now; in fact, it’s become so casual that it’s almost embarrassing at times. At some churches I visit I keep waiting for them to sell popcorn in the aisles.

Another good fear is one that I possess: I don’t particularly like climbing up on high ladders or standing on the edge of a roof.

My wife has a fear of vacuuming—it terrifies her into inactivity. Actually, that’s not a fear, it’s a phobia! (I promise no more vacuuming jokes…today!)

For years I had an inordinate fear of the devil. I feared that he could come and take me over at any moment and there was nothing I could do about it. It was an irrational fear but real, nonetheless.

When I was little, five or six years old, a very famous healing evangelist came to our church. During the healing service a woman came on the platform and the evangelist announced to the huge crowd that she was demon-possessed and he was going to cast the demon out of her. The evangelist went on to say that if we were not in the right spiritual attitude, the demon would go out of her and into us. Sure enough, as soon as he prayed for the woman, another person in the balcony began screaming and the evangelist and the pastor went into the crowd and prayed for him. In my young mind, two things were happening. The first was that I had no clue as to what the right spiritual attitude was. The second was that I saw God and the devil in a wrestling match and some days God won and some days the devil was the winner. My fear was compounded by the ignorance of the evangelist who did not properly handle this prayer of deliverance. From then on, I had an unfounded fear that at any moment the devil could take advantage of me just like he did that innocent person sitting in the balcony of the church.

It was not until later in life that I came to grips with the truth that the devil and God are not on the same footing. The devil is not sovereign, he is not everywhere, he is not all-powerful, and he is not knowledgeable about all things. The devil is a liar and a deceiver; he is a master of manipulation and trickery—and the devil is not God! When this truth settled in my spirit, my fear went away and has never returned.

We tend to be afraid of what we do not know or understand. Much of our fear of the future is because of what we don’t know. God’s commitment is to walk with us into our future. He will be our guide and our companion! We are instructed to hold fast to Him as we step into the future!

God’s promise to us is, “I (God, the sovereign creator of the universe) will be with you at all times; I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

This is an important truth to embrace and it is repeated (the holy stutter again) in verse 5 and again in verse 9.

So again, God’s promise to us is, “Just as I was with one of the great heroes of the faith, Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you alone or forsaken.”

Let me paraphrase for you how the Psalmist David treats this whole thought of God being with us when he says in Psalm 23:4: “Even when I am in one of those moments when death is nearby, so close I can see his shadow, it may make me nervous but I am not terrified BECAUSE YOU ARE WITH ME, just like You said You would be!”

We step into our future with confidence, knowing that God is with us. We hold fast to the One who knows exactly where we are going and how to get there!

Step out…the future is now and our Guide and Protector is ready to travel!