Easter; Gods antidote to fear
Easter is God’s antidote to fear
Ps Paul Cornish
Key Scriptures
1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love
Heb 2:14
…….through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil
1 Peter 3:14-15
….. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” …… always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you …
On Sunday the sermon was about fear and its antidote.
We all have fears
Pastor Paul pointed out that we all have fear in our lives to some extent. But the truth is that fear is both our enemy and indeed comes from our enemy. We fear losing the things we have and we fear the future with all its unknowns and frightening possibilities.
Fear can even be contagious. When we hang out with people who worry and fear things we start to think they might be right, maybe something terrible is going to happen! (Yet another good reason to be careful who we spend our time with)
He quoted a study and each person in the study had 14 separate or unique fears. I can think of 14 of my fears easily.
I fear:
I might lose my job
Our tenants might ruin our home
My cats might get attacked by a dog
Spiders
That my health might get worse
I might get attacked walking down a dodgy part of town
Earthquakes
Family dying and leaving me
I might have cancer
A disaster at work such as an explosion
Embarrassment in any form
Going blind
A family member getting a drug addiction
My husband might realise how crazy I am
Clearly I fear the future, the possibilities are almost endless of what could happen. But looking into the future fearfully is not helpful.
God’s love says “Do not be afraid”
It’s really interesting to note that so often an angel’s first words on appearing to someone in the bible were “Fear not” or “Do not be afraid”.
Even Jesus first words when he appeared in the midst of his disciples after his resurrection were “Do not be afraid”
We don’t have to be afraid of what the future brings because we are encompassed by Gods love and as 1 John chapter 4, verse 18 says “perfect love drives out fear”.
Love is like the medicine to the disease that is fear.
When we feel alone and that our future is in our hands we are right to feel fear. On our own we cannot cope with the future, we cannot deal with disaster. However when we know we are loved by the most powerful being in existence we can stop worrying, knowing that he has our future safe in his hands. We are not alone.
As it says in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 14 it was only by dying that Jesus could break the power of sin and death, the fear of dying. Because we have the hope of the resurrection we know death is not final.
We long for love
Paul spoke about our deep need for absolute, unconditional, unrestrained love and he is so clearly right.
When I think of teenage peer pressure and the longing to be accepted as part of a group I see that need for love being expressed. I think of kids yelling to parents “mummy, mummy watch me swing” and see them expressing their desire for the love of their parent. When a wife asks her husband if she is pretty I hear her actually asking if she is loved.
A need for love drives us all.
It’s quite easy to see, but what is interesting is the thought that every person we come into contact with has this deep need and longing. So when we interact with other people we need to remember that their deepest heart’s desire is to feel loved. This should influence how we talk to them, how we act towards them and how we care for them. They are all longing for love.
But ultimately our love will never meet another’s needs, only God is capable of giving us as much love as we need. Only God can fill the gap of a hungry heart looking for love.
As Christians we have to choose to hang onto word of God and keep letting go of our fears. It is an ongoing process, as we deal with one fear another may rear its ugly head.
This ongoing nature of facing our fears, accepting Gods love afresh and letting go gives us fresh testimonies and stories. It also keeps us growing and maturing, which has got to be a good thing.
As 1 Peter chapter 3 verses 14 and 15 tells us; Do not worry or be afraid. Give glory to God and be ready to explain the hope you have.
The only real antidote to the fear we all face is God’s love, and only love frees us from fear.
This Easter:
People need to know God loves them
People need to understand Jesus died and rose again for them
We need to help people commit their fears to God and accept that love
KG
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