Hello everyone,
Today's topic is fear. It's something we see all around us and something we deal with daily. If you ask any of my five children or possibly my wife, they might tell you that I look really scary in the morning because my hair looks so bad in the morning! OK, all joking aside, I want to take a more serious look at fear. Just this past week I was in a meeting with someone who told me that a little bit of fear was a good thing. This person was trying to make a point and she was very very wrong. Fear will kill you. There is nothing remotely good about it.
In her example, she stated that if we don't teach children to fear their hand getting burned by a hot stove, they could get hurt. What she should have said is that if we don't teach children to respect the heat that comes off the stove, they can get burned. But they definitely should not fear the stove, there's nothing good that can come from fear.
Now I can already hear someone saying, "Mr. Minion, the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." That is what the King James Bible says but what that word fear means is deep respect and reverence of the Lord. Remember this, the Bible says that God is Love and that perfect love casts out fear. That means that if we go near God that His love will cast out fear. Let me put it this way. I'm a dad and I definitely want my children to respect what I say but I certainly don't want any of my children to ever fear me. It would hurt me to think that one of my own children was afraid of me.
I don't even think that horror movies are good for us. Think about it. They can desensitize us to what fear actually does. We like to watch movies that have fear in them because most of the time there is no "real" fear that would come after us from them. But they teach us to live with fear and that fear can be amusing. I personally prefer comedies because I like to laugh. The Bible says that a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
So what about fear? I heard a preacher say one time that the shadow of a dog never bit anyone. How often do we sit around being fearful of what might happen. I know someone who is going back to school and this person is afraid of some things that might never happen. This person is worrying about things before they even come up. Now I'm not telling you to plan for things and make sure you know what to do if something happens but that is much different that worrying about it.
Earlier this week, I was in a situation at work and worried about it for two days. The particular thing I worried about never even took place so I worried for nothing. Worse than that, we can't stand in fear and faith at the same time so I wasn't even standing in faith while I was worrying about it. How dumb was I? I have recently realized that there were several areas of my life where I was worrying about things and I am making the decision to quit. Fear is of the devil. I am striving more and more to work with one of my wife's 2 Ts (trust and thankfulness) - trust. When I role the cares of those things over on to the Lord, He can take them and do something about them.
Can it be that simple to stop fear. The answer is yes. Quit choosing to live with fear and start choosing to live with trust in God! When fear comes, tell the devil you aren't buying and choose to walk away from it!
That's another Opinion of the Minion
Today's topic is fear. It's something we see all around us and something we deal with daily. If you ask any of my five children or possibly my wife, they might tell you that I look really scary in the morning because my hair looks so bad in the morning! OK, all joking aside, I want to take a more serious look at fear. Just this past week I was in a meeting with someone who told me that a little bit of fear was a good thing. This person was trying to make a point and she was very very wrong. Fear will kill you. There is nothing remotely good about it.
In her example, she stated that if we don't teach children to fear their hand getting burned by a hot stove, they could get hurt. What she should have said is that if we don't teach children to respect the heat that comes off the stove, they can get burned. But they definitely should not fear the stove, there's nothing good that can come from fear.
Now I can already hear someone saying, "Mr. Minion, the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." That is what the King James Bible says but what that word fear means is deep respect and reverence of the Lord. Remember this, the Bible says that God is Love and that perfect love casts out fear. That means that if we go near God that His love will cast out fear. Let me put it this way. I'm a dad and I definitely want my children to respect what I say but I certainly don't want any of my children to ever fear me. It would hurt me to think that one of my own children was afraid of me.
I don't even think that horror movies are good for us. Think about it. They can desensitize us to what fear actually does. We like to watch movies that have fear in them because most of the time there is no "real" fear that would come after us from them. But they teach us to live with fear and that fear can be amusing. I personally prefer comedies because I like to laugh. The Bible says that a merry heart doeth good like a medicine.
So what about fear? I heard a preacher say one time that the shadow of a dog never bit anyone. How often do we sit around being fearful of what might happen. I know someone who is going back to school and this person is afraid of some things that might never happen. This person is worrying about things before they even come up. Now I'm not telling you to plan for things and make sure you know what to do if something happens but that is much different that worrying about it.
Earlier this week, I was in a situation at work and worried about it for two days. The particular thing I worried about never even took place so I worried for nothing. Worse than that, we can't stand in fear and faith at the same time so I wasn't even standing in faith while I was worrying about it. How dumb was I? I have recently realized that there were several areas of my life where I was worrying about things and I am making the decision to quit. Fear is of the devil. I am striving more and more to work with one of my wife's 2 Ts (trust and thankfulness) - trust. When I role the cares of those things over on to the Lord, He can take them and do something about them.
Can it be that simple to stop fear. The answer is yes. Quit choosing to live with fear and start choosing to live with trust in God! When fear comes, tell the devil you aren't buying and choose to walk away from it!
That's another Opinion of the Minion