You Scared or Nah?

Fear

There was a show that used to come on or it may still come on I’m unsure. It was called fear factor, and on this show the only way you could win is face fears like a lying in a bed of snakes or eating some sort of insect. Or even being under water for lengths of time. Nonetheless in effort to win you have to face your fear at a chance of winning the prize. Life brings a a number of fears, some of those fears we never overcome. We avoid them, but sometimes in life we do not come face to face with them.

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-disciple. Fear is something that we have to overcome if we are going to be disciples for Jesus Christ. This journey is not for the timid. When you are in a storm, it is not time to be fearful but time to understand that I can make it through this storm. The peculiar thing about any tough circumstance, is the fact that many of us are coming out of storms, but as we are coming out we are weary and tired, and often times that is when we make our biggest mistakes.

Lot’s Home has burned down

His wife and son’s in law are casualties of the destruction of Sodom.

Lot’s is even operating from a place of fear.

In verse 18 Lot responds, Oh No, My lords! but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die;

Then in verse 30 the bible says he stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters.

I believe this story prompts a few questions, how do I respond to fear? Is there ever a reason to give up? What if I make a mistake? Typically these questions lead to some of the greatest accomplishments or the greatest defeats in our life.

Any abrupt change is going to have some amount of fear, but where we have to be resilient is making sure our faith is always greater than the fear that tries to arise and discourage us. I want to focus on verse 30 this morning, “Lot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters”.

What Is Fear?

This word afraid in this text means to be in a state of feeling great distress, and deep concern of pain or unfavorable circumstance or to be in fear, or intimidated by the circumstance.

One of the things we have to be cognizant of during our state of feeling such great distress is being aware of your surroundings.

Jesus said “Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and the day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; or it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. But keep on the alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Jesus encourages people to be alert, many of us are coming out of storms, and exiting a storm we are weary, tired, and often times that’s when we make our biggest mistakes.

His home is gone

His wife is gone

Lot’s problem is he is operating from a place of fear. I don’t know about you but if I saw my wife turn to a pillar of salt a drink might not be that bad of an idea. Typically it is not the consequence of our problems that defeats us it is how we deal with those issues.

We see it all the time, and when we respond to challenges with imbalance it promotes improper decisions.

This fear is not just a everyday fear like when a bee is swarming around on a spring day, this is deep fear, like I do not know what to do. Typically that fear has to have a God response attached to it.

This same word for afraid used to describe the emotional state of Lot is used to describe the 22,000 men that left from Mount Gilead when Gideon was left with just 300 men.

Just because you respond to fear does not mean that you are in a state of shock while it is happening. Even when we are victims of fear and doubt God still provides. Lot chose to go to Sodom, even though it was evil and despite Lot, God saw fit to save Lot because of Uncle Abraham.

God spared his life even though it was being driven by fear.

Fear of the Past

God does not want us to operate from a place of fear, and looking back at our past is a reflection of that. If you are so caught up with your past that you cannot seem to focus on the refuge in front of you now you purpose in life becomes insignificant.

Life becomes this rat race of significance, God presents us with a journey and so many times we let our past get in the way. Okay, so you messed up, well let God tell us something, we all have, we all have fallen short. This is the idea behind grace and mercy. One may ask what is the grace and mercy of being turned into a pillar of salt, but she could’ve been burnt up with the rest of the residents, but God gave her a chance.

Sometimes if we continue looking back God will allow us to be a product of our past rather than be purposeful toward a new life.

Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

Fear can lead to stagnation or it can lead to irrational decisions. When we are uncertain of an outcome we have to choose faith or fear. There is no middle ground, doing nothing is a reflection of fear. If I know that without faith it is impossible to please God and I also know that with God nothing is impossible I have to start tapping into my faith!

Fear Affects Your Circle

Fear makes us irrational. Lot’s daughters state “there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth” Now be mindful that they are not talking about all of the earth but it translates to “in the land” they are in.

So they make their father drink wine, the bible tells us that Brother Lot was so twisted that he did not know when they were coming or going. Why does it seem we make some of our worst decisions when we are tired, hungry, inebriated, lonely? Spiritually absent because we are afraid of the unknown, so we come up with this idea that we should take the problem into our own hands instead of continuously trusting in God.

What fear should promote is that I can’t do this alone, either I’m stepping out on faith or I’m going to fail by staying put.

Lot allowed substances to take control of his future because his guard was down. You might be out of a storm, and that is okay, but just know we have to be even more careful fresh out of a storm than when we are in one.

The beautiful thing about God is that despite out fear, despite our mistakes he can still turn things around for our good. We have to realize that God brought us to this place to be a conqueror not to be defeated. But spiritually we have to be alert and be present. Some of us are sitting in here right now hiding in the caves of life in fear because of what we left behind and then that fear is prompting us to do something that we really should not be doing but because we have not tapped into our faith, our hearts are not at peace. Forgetting that we serve an faithful and powerful God.