Fear’s Antidote

In church we’re working through the series “loosen the fear knot”.  As I was doing more independent study, I found a fantastic solution to fear.

I’m not sure about you, but when I was a kid I was heavily involved in Boy Scouts.  This experience helped me with leadership, coping with change, team work, independence, initiative, and a smattering of survival skills.

As I look back, I realize how important the motto, Be Prepared, is in my life.  Knowing that I’m prepared helps me maintain my composure and allows me to do things I might not otherwise want to undertake.  It might make more sense if we take a look at something that seems so foreign in today’s culture.  Let’s look at camping and hiking.

I say that this is foreign in today’s culture only because I think that we have lost the idea of “roughing it”.  Our culture has equated camping to spending time in a recreational vehicle and hiking as a day’s walk not far from civilization.  When I was in Scouts, camping was in a tent where we had to hike in.  Hiking was carrying a week’s worth of clothes, first aid supplies, food, and water on your back.  We would grab a map and head out for a few days at a time.

I was reviewing the typically packing list for a trip like this:

·         Pocket Knife

·         First Aid Kit

·         Extra Clothes

·         Rain Gear

·         Water Bottle

·         Flashlight

·         Matches and fire starters

·         Maps and compasses

·         Sleeping bag

·         Food

·         Cleaning Kit

·         Notebook

·         Snakebite Kit

·         Bible

As I got around to reviewing this list I started to understand it a bit more.  These were all antidotes for something:

·         First Aid Kit antidote for injury

·         Extra Clothes antidote for filth

·         Rain Gear antidote for rain

·         Water Bottle antidote for thirst

·         Flashlight antidote for darkness

·         Matches and fire starters antidote for cold

·         Maps and compasses antidote for disorientation

·         Sleeping bag antidote for fatigue

·         Food antidote for hunger

·         Cleaning Kit antidote for bacteria

·         Notebook antidote for loneliness

·         Snakebite Kit antidote for venom

·         Bible antidote for the Enemy

You see, there are antidotes for the things we fear.  We pack them before we travel.  We’re taking them along with us.  Without these items, the real fear is being judged by the unknown, being judged by God’s creation.  We counteract this fear by being prepared, by carrying the antidote.

Well, it sure has been a long time since I’ve had to pack these types of items.  Frankly, I miss it.  However, I find myself packing for other things along the way.  I’m continuously trying to counteract fear at home, at work, around friends, and while driving.

As a guy, I’m hoping you’ll feel somewhat similar to me when I say I’m afraid of being found out.  I wonder how many of us are fearful of this.  What I mean to say is that my job and the role I have at home I feel like I never live up to my own expectations.  In fact, I’m afraid of others finding out exactly how uncomfortable I am in my own skin sometimes.

Let’s take new projects for instance.  How many of you spend countless hours worrying about a new assignment?  Do you read all about what you’re supposed to know before your asked just so you don’t screw it up?

What about home life?  Are you continually challenged by the changes around you and your kids?  Are you afraid of screwing them up?  Are you afraid that your wife might not find you as loving or helpful with the kids as she had hoped when you first got married?

Speaking of being married, are you afraid of not living up to your wife’s expectations? Are you afraid you may not be able to provide for her as well as she might expect?  Are you afraid she’s going to find out how much you struggle with temptation?

What do you do with your fear?  Or, is it a better question to ask, what does fear do to you?

When we’re afraid, we’re often crippled from really performing.  We often don’t go into the wilderness as far as we should if we haven’t packed correctly.  You see, fear tends to torment us into inaction.  We’re so afraid of not living up to the expectations of ourselves or others, we often do something worse than fail, and we often simply don’t try.

I wonder what God would say about this fear of being judged.  After all, he’s the ultimate judge for us isn’t he?  Since He’s the ultimate judge I find myself being afraid of the judgment He’ll pass to me for falling short, for not delivering a message correctly, or even worse continuing in my sin that I seem to be trapped in all the time.

To get answers to this, let’s take a look at some scripture.  Let’s take a look at 1 John Chapter 4.  As you are flipping to the chapter, let’s review a bit about John and this letter first.  I think that it is important to remember that John was "…that disciple whom Jesus loved..." (John 21:7, NKJV)  John knew Jesus personally.  John was present for much of Jesus’ ministry, His death, His resurrection, and His ascension.  John knew the sacrifice that was made for him and others.  John loved Jesus and understood the big picture of the great commission.  Now, let’s read "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." (1 John 4:18, NKJV)

Wow, this is the antidote we were looking for.  Let’s examine the passage again quickly.  The first phrase “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear”.  This phrase is profound.  God is telling us that these two cannot coexist, they are mutually exclusive.  This is the description of exact opposites.  The coin can either land on head “fear” or tails “love”, there is no such thing as middle ground.  This shows that love is the antidote for fear.  Perfect love is God’s love.

We may try very hard to love like the Lord, but we’ll never get there.  This love that is being described is perfect love – God’s love for us.  In Jesus’ words "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16, NKJV).  This is the perfect love John is talking about.

Let’s look at the next piece, “because fear involves torment”.  Now, in my research, it reads that the fear here is the fear of judgment from God.  This fear is torment.  When we’re not right with God, when we’re still harboring our own sins and not confessing them, this fear can be crippling.  We’re continually sidelined in God’s fight for souls by our own fear of retaliation from God.  However, this is not God’s nature.  Jesus says "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew 6:33-34, NKJV).  This means that God wants a personal relationship with you and wants you to be able to provide for you.   If you are seeking him, he’ll show up!  There is no torment in God’s heart.  If we truly understand grace, we’ll finally see this as an emancipation proclamation.  God’s love is the antidote for fear.  God’s love sets us free from the torment of the Enemy, it sets us free to do His will, to show up for Him and not be afraid of judgment.  In fact, this encounter with God is something for which we should look forward.

The last piece is our instruction of how to outfit our backpack “But he who fears has not been made perfect in love”.  This is our call to ponder God’s love for us.  It is our call to take refuge in Him.  This is our call to pack His love into our heart as an antidote for fear.

So what?  What do we do with this?  We listen carefully to His word and step out in faith that if our heart is right with the Lord and we understand His mercy we will not only be liberated from the torment of the fear that comes from not being able to live up to His expectations, but this actually empowers us to go beyond our comfort zone and serve Him in all aspects of our lives.

We talked earlier about not being able to measure up to others expectations.  How we might prepare for meetings, new challenges, changing situations at home.  We talked about the fear of being found out.  Well, if we truly understand God’s power and His position as the Creator, we’d be more worried about making the grade with him than our co-workers, or kids, or our wives.  In addition, if we understand the grace he provides us while we’re chasing after him, we’ll be empowered to expose ourselves for whoever God created us to be.  We’ll lean into the Creator and stop being so focused on the creation.  God’s love in our lives can and should be the antidote for the greatest fear.  If it can negate these effects, how much more can it negate the effects of the fears we have here on earth?

So, as we go out of here and headed into another week I ask you to imagine what home would be like if you dropped your guard and listened to what God wanted in your life.  If we were to really grasp the hope that comes from the understanding of the antidote for fear, we could really do great things for those we love, and really serve the Lord we love.

Let’s pray.  Heavenly Father, I thank you for your antidote.  I thank you for paying the price for me and my sins of the past, present, and future.  I pray that you strengthen me in times of temptation and work within me so that you can do a work through me.  I pray for all that are here today, that they would feel the peace that your love provides.  I pray we would all understand the hope that you provided at the cross, and you continue to provide us as you have an unrelenting pursuit for us in your heart.  Let us be reminded that you’re for us and we can come to you to be refreshed and we shouldn’t be afraid of the torment anymore.  Amen.