Fear Vs Faith

    

Once we make up our minds to obey God, to put God as our first priority and honor HIM above all else, there comes the devil with a powerful tool - fear - the fear of the loss of time, energy, dignity, comfort or life, as part of a sacrifice we may have to make, in order to please God. This fear comes when we have too much of Self consideration - when we consider (worldly) pleasures of self above God.

When we are so much Self-oriented, we often find us saying – “am too busy and hence I can't afford to lose my precious time to God as a sacrifice”; “I have accomplished so much and with this position and power, I can't humble myself to listen to God and simply can't forgo my dignity as a sacrifice to God”; “am very much settled and comfortable right where I am and am afraid that if I listen to God (for instance, to overcome the spirit of petty pleasures, spirit of idolatry), it might lead to my discomfort or boredom”; “I am bound to the society and I simply can't imagine a life without having to depend on the people around for my needs - and if I listen to God, I may suffer the loss of the social support that I trust in”; “if I don't attend the worldly functions of others by skipping church, (no matter how bad a relationship I've had with them, if at all I had one), am afraid I'll have to host an empty wedding hall in the future”.

         We see that all kinds of “fear” stems from “Self”. Fear is nothing but the thought of losing something our "Self" possesses (time, energy, comfort, dignity, Self-accomplishments) and considers precious. How do we combat this fear that Satan brings? GOD'S Word says "Fear Not", for God HIMSELF is within us! We just need to put our trust in the God who loves us, rather than trying to figure out what effects, would a sacrifice to God have, on our "Self" - comfort, dignity, accomplishments. When GOD'S Word comes to us, our Self is put to test and there is a war between fear and faith. Fear wants the Self to win and faith wants God to win. Fear comes from the mind which tries to calculate the loss that would be incurred on Self, but deep in our hearts, the HOLY spirit gives faith - to trust in the LORD no matter what adversity we may have to face, or what price we may have to pay. Faith should overcome fear, if we really want to obey GOD'S Word.

How does our faith increase and how can faith mitigate fear?

Romans 10:17
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith comes by hearing the Word of God again and again (Which strengthens our trust in God and diminishes our “Self” - making it easy for us to obey the Word of God) and Fear comes by hearing the words of Satan (who points out all the losses we may have to face in order to obey God). We see that the decision is up to us - to win the battle with faith (and sacrifice – remember, it’s a battle!!) and obey the Word of God and be a pleasing aroma to our God or lose the battle to Satan by succumbing to fear by believing the his lies.  

Let us therefore, put our trust in the LORD, slay our Self-interests to sacrifice it to our God, overcome fear with faith to obey HIS Word.