Fear of the dark and light
See the picture? It's a bright church as seen from a dark alley.
This is my 3rd report :)
In case you're wondering how come I have so much time,
(a) God makes time for me, so surely we should reciprocate :) and
(b) I used lunch hour OK?!?!
Last week, we talked about fear. There are two main types of fear - the "good" type and the "bad" type. The "good" type refers to the fear of the Lord - giving reverence to the Creator and Judge of the earth in the way we think and act and live. What I propose to talk about today is the "bad" type of fear.
Fear of the dark
I think there can be two aspects to "bad" fear. The first aspect is is akin to the fear of the dark. Fear of the dark is when we can't see what is ahead and we worry that there are nasty surprises in store for us. Typically, this manifests itself in fear over our own futures, in terms of family, career, housing plans, investments etc. We don't know if our children will grow up well, go to good schools and live happy and fruitful lives. We don't know if our boss is going to like us today or tomorrow or at performance appraisal. We don't know if our decisions to buy houses or invest are well-timed. We don't know if our health or the health of our family and friends will hold up. Because we don't know these things, we may fear them.
But God's word tells us that perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18). What is this perfect love? It is the love of God, which includes His promise that all things work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Does His love ever fail? No. His love endures forever (see Psalm 136 for an emphatic declaration of this truth). Since His love endures forever, and this perfect love drives out fear, why then do we still fear? Because we have not accepted His love? Perhaps it can be better characterized as a lack of faith. We just don't think that His plan will in fact work for our good. Hebrews 11:1 tells us "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".
All this talk is well and good, and most of us are probably aware of this in our heads. But have our hearts bought into the truth that God loves us, so that we can live without fear of the unknown, fear of the dark? Recently, God revealed to me how far I have to go in terms of trusting Him. My wife and I had made a (stupid) housing decision that left us dangling and technically "homeless". The property market, as you probably know, seems to be rocketing. We were worried that we were going to be left without an affordable home. In the stressful weeks while we were searching for alternative housing, I found that I was irritable and grumpy. Why? I was in fear. I just didn't think that God would provide a solution and a plan for my good. I was hearing the property news and leaning on my own understanding (Prov 3:5-6).
Mercifully, the housing problem has been resolved, and more satisfactorily than I deserve too. One lesson to learn is not to make stupid decisions in future. But that might be the worst lesson to take away from this. Because the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry (Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck), and the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom (1 Cor 1:25). Thinking that I have learned a practical lesson is one thing, but really the spiritual revelation to be obtained from this short period of testing is far more important: (a) my house and earthly possessions have a disproportionately high level of importance to me. If they had not been so important, I would not have reacted with so much stress. It therefore seems to me that although I pride myself on being unmaterialistic, I am in fact dreadfully materialistic; and (b) I need to trust God. If I really trusted in God's plan, then I ought to have nothing to fear. What then, should my reaction be? First, to set my priorities right and set my mind on things above, not on earthly things (Col 3:2. See also Phi 4:11-13 - the New Living Translation puts it particularly well).
Second, to trust that in any event, God's plan will provide (Again, Rom 8:28. See also Jer 29:11).
Fear of the light
So much for the fear of the dark. There's a second facet to this - a curious converse. And that is the fear of the light. We're often scared of the dark and the unknown. But it's actually possible to be scared of what you'll see what you switch the lights on too! This is, for want of a better label, the Jonah syndrome. Jonah wasn't in the dark. He was a prophet. He knew what God wanted, clear as the day. But he didn't like what he saw or heard. So he ran away. There's a really amusing cartoon series called Veggie Tales that demonstrates this well in a dream sequence where God is trying to speak to Jonah but Jonah is putting his hands in his ears and going LA LA LA LA to drown out God's voice. I'm guilty of this too! God may tell us - go, speak to your colleague about the good news. But we put up our hands in horror and say no we can't do that, he might think I'm weird! Or He may tell us, go and bring your family to Aceh for 2 weeks to do work there. Again, this may sound like bad news. This then is the fear of the light. We fear that God won't take care of our business while we're doing His business. Sadly, it's nothing new. Look at Matt 8:28-34. The people had just seen a miracle. But they told Jesus to go away. They just didn't want anything to do with the light. But we, who know that God's plans are for our good, should have no fear of the light. Let's be challenged, instead, to cast out all fear and embrace the light. If we do His work, will He not go before us and straighten the path?
Let's learn to deal with our fear of the dark and our fear of the light. Like the psalmist, we should declare in Spirit and in truth - His love endures forever!
So then, a really long message today - so I guess I should reiterate that anyone who is tired of receiving these emails pl let me know. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing you all again. God bless you all!
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matt 5: 14-16
In case you're wondering how come I have so much time,
(a) God makes time for me, so surely we should reciprocate :) and
(b) I used lunch hour OK?!?!
Last week, we talked about fear. There are two main types of fear - the "good" type and the "bad" type. The "good" type refers to the fear of the Lord - giving reverence to the Creator and Judge of the earth in the way we think and act and live. What I propose to talk about today is the "bad" type of fear.
Fear of the dark
I think there can be two aspects to "bad" fear. The first aspect is is akin to the fear of the dark. Fear of the dark is when we can't see what is ahead and we worry that there are nasty surprises in store for us. Typically, this manifests itself in fear over our own futures, in terms of family, career, housing plans, investments etc. We don't know if our children will grow up well, go to good schools and live happy and fruitful lives. We don't know if our boss is going to like us today or tomorrow or at performance appraisal. We don't know if our decisions to buy houses or invest are well-timed. We don't know if our health or the health of our family and friends will hold up. Because we don't know these things, we may fear them.
But God's word tells us that perfect love drives out fear (1 John 4:18). What is this perfect love? It is the love of God, which includes His promise that all things work for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). Does His love ever fail? No. His love endures forever (see Psalm 136 for an emphatic declaration of this truth). Since His love endures forever, and this perfect love drives out fear, why then do we still fear? Because we have not accepted His love? Perhaps it can be better characterized as a lack of faith. We just don't think that His plan will in fact work for our good. Hebrews 11:1 tells us "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see".
All this talk is well and good, and most of us are probably aware of this in our heads. But have our hearts bought into the truth that God loves us, so that we can live without fear of the unknown, fear of the dark? Recently, God revealed to me how far I have to go in terms of trusting Him. My wife and I had made a (stupid) housing decision that left us dangling and technically "homeless". The property market, as you probably know, seems to be rocketing. We were worried that we were going to be left without an affordable home. In the stressful weeks while we were searching for alternative housing, I found that I was irritable and grumpy. Why? I was in fear. I just didn't think that God would provide a solution and a plan for my good. I was hearing the property news and leaning on my own understanding (Prov 3:5-6).
Mercifully, the housing problem has been resolved, and more satisfactorily than I deserve too. One lesson to learn is not to make stupid decisions in future. But that might be the worst lesson to take away from this. Because the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry (Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck), and the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom (1 Cor 1:25). Thinking that I have learned a practical lesson is one thing, but really the spiritual revelation to be obtained from this short period of testing is far more important: (a) my house and earthly possessions have a disproportionately high level of importance to me. If they had not been so important, I would not have reacted with so much stress. It therefore seems to me that although I pride myself on being unmaterialistic, I am in fact dreadfully materialistic; and (b) I need to trust God. If I really trusted in God's plan, then I ought to have nothing to fear. What then, should my reaction be? First, to set my priorities right and set my mind on things above, not on earthly things (Col 3:2. See also Phi 4:11-13 - the New Living Translation puts it particularly well).
Second, to trust that in any event, God's plan will provide (Again, Rom 8:28. See also Jer 29:11).
Fear of the light
So much for the fear of the dark. There's a second facet to this - a curious converse. And that is the fear of the light. We're often scared of the dark and the unknown. But it's actually possible to be scared of what you'll see what you switch the lights on too! This is, for want of a better label, the Jonah syndrome. Jonah wasn't in the dark. He was a prophet. He knew what God wanted, clear as the day. But he didn't like what he saw or heard. So he ran away. There's a really amusing cartoon series called Veggie Tales that demonstrates this well in a dream sequence where God is trying to speak to Jonah but Jonah is putting his hands in his ears and going LA LA LA LA to drown out God's voice. I'm guilty of this too! God may tell us - go, speak to your colleague about the good news. But we put up our hands in horror and say no we can't do that, he might think I'm weird! Or He may tell us, go and bring your family to Aceh for 2 weeks to do work there. Again, this may sound like bad news. This then is the fear of the light. We fear that God won't take care of our business while we're doing His business. Sadly, it's nothing new. Look at Matt 8:28-34. The people had just seen a miracle. But they told Jesus to go away. They just didn't want anything to do with the light. But we, who know that God's plans are for our good, should have no fear of the light. Let's be challenged, instead, to cast out all fear and embrace the light. If we do His work, will He not go before us and straighten the path?
Let's learn to deal with our fear of the dark and our fear of the light. Like the psalmist, we should declare in Spirit and in truth - His love endures forever!
So then, a really long message today - so I guess I should reiterate that anyone who is tired of receiving these emails pl let me know. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing you all again. God bless you all!
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. Matt 5: 14-16
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