He would not go in the water. We coaxed him with confidence-inducing phrases like, "You’re strong! You can do it!" Gradually the encouragement turned to exhortation—"Look our mission could fail if you won’t cross this stupid river." But that didn’t work either. Levin had no cause to be afraid of water that we knew of—no near drowning experiences, no relatives lost to sea, but still for some profound reason he would have nothing to do with that liquid body of unknown strength. So nine weary soldiers sat down and scratched their heads. To meet their objective they had to cross the Pocomotix river but they could not leave their diffident squadmate alone.
Meditation
Romans 8:15—For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
Fear is often a dwarf masquerading in giant’s clothing. Whether real or imagined it can be an insurmountable obstacle to our spiritual growth. The New Testament offers us several examples of this. Jesus healed a man who called himself Legion because many demons had gone into him. When the people in the region of the Gerasenes heard of his healing and how a herd of pigs feeding nearby ran madly off a steep bank into the lake and drowned, they begged Jesus to leave because they were overcome with fear. Rather than trust this Son of Man Who mightily freed a man in bondage they focused on out-of-control pigs and the discomfort of an insane man now walking about in his right mind (Luke
The Apostle John tells us that many Jewish leaders believed in Jesus but they would not follow Him for fear that the Pharisees would throw them out of the synagogue (John 12:42). They sacrificed truth on their own altar of prestige and social acceptance.
The causes of fear are the cancers of faith. I don’t want to lose something. I am afraid harm will come to me. So I give in to what paralyzes my ability to grow and become a prisoner in my own body. When we placed our confidence in Jesus, we were freed from the spirit of fear. We became children of God sheltered under the arms of our omnipotent Father. We see what this looks like in the boldness of the Apostles who were not afraid to lose their lives spreading the gospel because they believed that Christ truly was their Savior. When He rose from the dead, their fears were given a proper burial.
To live in fear is to believe that God is not able, a grotesque lie of Lucifer. To cower is to dance to the shake of rattled bones instead of gyrating to the praise of a redeemed spirit. Don’t be impaled by the spear of fear. Be like King David who wrote, "I sought the Lord, and He answered me; he delivered me from all my fears" (Psalm 34:4).
Inspiration
Fears can come in response to a variety of situations. different people are afraid of failure, the future, achieving success, rejection, intimacy, conflict, meaninglessness in life (sometimes called existential anxiety), sickness, death, loneliness, and a host of other real or imagined possibilities.—Gary Collins in Christian Counseling
