Clasfonunibadan

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity but of power , love and self-discipline . ” – 2 Timothy 1 :7 ( NLT )

Research has it that the roar of a lion which reverberates at about 114 decibels, throws the jungle into so much tremor that the weaker animals in a bid to scurry to safety and out of panic, blindly bring themselves to the hungry lion as prey – Free food for a lion king. This lends credence to the agelong saying that cowards die ten times before the actual death comes. Fear comes from the devil, faith is from God.

While counting the cost for a daunting task, it is easy to be reminded of your inadequacies. It is at that point that you start to rethink your quality and your capacity to execute the said task.
Are you aware that the idea of an aeroplane did not begin with Orville and Wilbur Wright? The ones attributed to having invented the massive air marvel. Professor Samuel Langley began the project and despite his initial resilience; snide remarks and critical comments made doubts dominate his mind such that he abandoned his dream design. The Wright brothers took the seemingly dead contrivance and completed it to the awe and astonishment of the cynical bystander.

F. E. A. R has been described as an acronym for False Experience Appearing Real. Nothing is real until you agree to it being so. I would like to imagine how Jesus Christ must have felt when he weighed the pros and cons of permitting the people of the world to have his precious blood spilt on the cross of Calvary. This attests to the fact that having a fearful feeling is only a reminder of how frail the human mind is and whether we like it or not it will come knocking. How we decide to react to its offer of impossibilities is however our responsibility. Jesus realised that doubt was beginning to creep into his mind, but he worked on it in the place of prayer until he wrestled it to submission. If we let fear have its way, it will quickly permeate the body, soul and spirit; thoughts of inability are immediately activated – Christ returned from the garden of Gethsemane with a strengthened mind, a pointer to the fact that when fear tells us multiple reasons why it can’t happen, faith casts your mind back to why you have every reason why it must happen.

Judas Iscariot betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ because he probably believed that the saviour was too invincible for the Sanhedrin to arrest, seeing how things didn’t go as he envisaged it to, he returned the 30 Shekels of silver he got for the betrayal and made a bad situation worse, by taking his own life, setting himself up for an eternal experience of damnation. Fear gnawed his insides and made him shut his heart at even attempting to find forgiveness. ” Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. ”  – Romans 8:1 (AMP)

We can as well tell that withholding vital information from your Lawyer on a case that he or she is helping you with,  can have a fatal effect on the case, especially if the opposing attorney gets wind of the information before your Lawyer does. He’ll deftly devise means to use it against you in court while your Lawyer tries to do damage control.
Christ is our great Advocate ( 1 John 2: 1) and he is constantly pleading our case in heaven, tell him about your insecurities before Satan deploys it against you. Without faith it is impossible to please God; if the prosecuting Lawyer -the devil can prove that you have fear, which is the opposite of faith, then you are displeasing God and that puts you at a disadvantage. The sacred scripture in 1 John 4: 18 tells us that fear has torment.

The real difference between a proponent of an idea being believed more than the other is often influenced by the greater confidence rate that one expressed than the other. You cannot be called as a witness in court and still be doubtful. A witness with shifty eyes cannot assure the court of his or her account of an event. Anything done without faith is an activity in futility. Slavery, hasty decisions without thinking straight, making mistakes inevitable, are some of the consequences of letting fear have a field day in your life. Unbelief creates a gap between you and the All-knowing God.

The best way to tackle fear is to face it, if you deny it, it grows wings and flies to yet another level. In this case, denial of it is just mere folly and at best can offer only delayed defeat. Let’s not be like the proverbial ostrich that tucks its head into the sand when it is faced with danger, thinking the danger to be gone, whereas nothing changed, the fate of the ostrich? Your guess is as good as mine.

The Sacred scriptures in James 4: 17 teaches us that we should resist the devil and he will flee. It also posits in Romans 8: 37 that “In all these things we are more than conquerors”… but no conqueror is made without a conquest.

Here is a poem I put together about fear:

Put fear to flight,
For it seeks to take the day’s delight.
Put up the fight,
Quieten it though matter how slight.

Your foe, Fright,
Can do no right.
Of what use is light,
Though matter how bright?
When fear lurks at sight.

So are you afraid? No !!! Anyone else can ,but not you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Akinkuolie Emmanuel A. is the Director of Publications and Content, CLASFON, UI Chapter. He is a member of the Academic Unit and Learned Tongues – Choir arm of CLASFON UI. He is a firm believer in proclaiming God’s word to all and sundry through written works.