Great Commands of the Bible,
"Do not be Afraid"
"Do not be Afraid"
There are many words of Command in the Bible,
Commands from God,
Commands from Jesus,
Commands of the Disciples,
and the Commands of Paul.
God's Covenant With Abram
At night, a child goes to mother, "I am afraid, can I stay with you?" Someone loses a job and wonders how they will survive; or a young lieutenant navigator arrives in Saigon, S-Vietnam petrified, scared of dying, and filled in fear knowing that the next day's battle is most dangerous. From the earliest times in the Bible, from Abram (Abraham), Moses, Joshua, to the disciples, they were often afraid.
Just as with those mentioned, we all can have one emotion in common, that emotion is FEAR. For good reasons, we are born with it. Medical science explains that fear forms in the amygdale, an almond-shaped mass of gray matter of the brain and scientist have found a gene that produces a protein, 'stathmin' that is a stimulant of fear and anxiety. Fear and being afraid is good for us as it heightens our awareness of our surroundings but how we learn to deal with it determines our success in our surviving life. We learn to control our response or in our panic, we can become useless, or worse, dead. The fearful circumstances will remain, but the panic of being afraid does not have to control us. Learning to shed panic in times of our senses hightened by natural fear is a learned response. In learning to shed panic, we learn to actively respond without being afraid. In our God-given Faith, we learn to shed panic more quickly and to respond quickly and our response then is to His Glory.
Millions of words have been written about dealing with our common enemy- fear and being afraid. Jesus had a few words that can help us, probably more than most of the millions by mankind.
Jesus in one word had two important commands that help control our panic, lighten our fear, and ideally eliminate all of it. Two words that are the enemy of our faith in God.
In facing fear, faith is the foundation of our response. Either we have clear minded courage and respond in Godly Faith OR we depend on ourselves, our government or what ever, AND in doing so, shrink, become dependent, withdraw, run in our fears, live in mistrust, sink into anxiety, develop cowardice in our behaviors, and-or follow evil ways of trying to survive. Without God, we are in rebellion against God. In choosing a Godly Faith through Jesus Christ, Living in Faith is our Righteous Relationship with God.
We live and can do no better than Trusting God with our lives. It began with Abraham.
Beginning with Abraham (Abram) in Old Testament (OT) God admonished His chosen leaders "do not be afraid." It began with Abraham when he was fearful of not delivering a baby to God through his wife. In Genesis 15:
God's Covenant With Abram
1After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward."2But Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?"3And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."4Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir."5He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars--if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."6Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.135 times in the Old Testament, God communicates with the Hebrews/Israel 135 times either directly or through His prophets, "Do not be afraid". In all this for the Hebrews, living life is not as much about a relationship with God as it is about following the law and living in the covenant brought through Abraham and his descendants.
With the arrival of Jesus, everything changes. "Afraid" is replaced with faith, believe, and trust. Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and brings love to replace the law of the OT (Matthew 22:34-40). Where as faith and believe is mentioned only 35 times in the Old Testament, it is the focus and theme of the New Testament (NT). In the NT, the word faith is mentioned 242 times. In that translated word 'faith' from the Greek 'pistus', we have additional words from 'pistus'- believe and trust. Where the OT mentions 'believe' only 20 times, the NT has the word 130 times. In total, the Greek word 'pistus' (*1) translated as faith, believe, trust is mentioned in the NT 401 times. This 'pistus', this 'faith', 'believe', and 'trust' becomes and is our Personal Relationship with God! Jesus not only taught it, He commanded it! With one verb, He gave us two eternal commands:
John 14:1 NIV [Jesus Comforts His Disciples]
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
John 14:27 NIV
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Jesus brings that change, a new promise, the New Covenant with God: it is no longer about adherance to the law but about a Relationship, The Personal Relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit! With Jesus, He gives us peace freeing our hearts not to be afraid. Jesus, He truly changes our lives.
As the fear we feel in a situation will heighten our senses to danger it is good, but because of Jesus, we do not need to be afraid or constantly live in irrational fear of anything. Because of Jesus, our relationship with God, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit we can, with a clear mind and an untroubled heart better deal with the fear and CEASE being afraid.
Jesus taught and died to bring us 'pistus'- 'faith', 'believe', 'trust'. Faith- is God's Divine persuasion to Trust & Believe as Jesus' commands and teaches us.
In Jesus' Resurrection, God verified the Truth of Jesus' Words.Words that bring us Faith.
To repeat Jesus- "I tell you the truth": God loves us, Jesus Proves it, the Holy Spirit teaches us, and there is nothing you can do about it.
Thanks be to God
Other Great Commands: Great Commands of the Bible
See Epilog below on my dealing with the Fear of the Vietnam war for over 10 years.
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Epilog-
My dealing with fear and living in fear began nearly 10 years before June 3, 1973. That battle was won in an instant, 15 minutes after midnight.
On June 3, 1973 I arrived in Saigon for my first flying mission with my self-confidence totally washed away. In getting to my room dead tired and full of fear I just collapsed on my bunk. Praying was strange to me as a 24 year old young man. But, my fear was overwhelming as I prayed. In that blacked out, dark secluded room in Saigon, S. Vietnam, I humbly and in submission ended my prayer "not my will but thine be done". In that very instant of humility and giving up myself to His will as I prayed "... thine be done" God's everyday work, what we call a miracle, saved me from myself and my fear. My circumstances did not change but the strength to walk through the storm I faced suddenly laid me into a deep restful sleep.
Click this link for the details on why I am so sorry I fell asleep:
http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2011/06/self-confidence-part-2-of-3-6292011.html
On June 3, 1973 I arrived in Saigon for my first flying mission with my self-confidence totally washed away. In getting to my room dead tired and full of fear I just collapsed on my bunk. Praying was strange to me as a 24 year old young man. But, my fear was overwhelming as I prayed. In that blacked out, dark secluded room in Saigon, S. Vietnam, I humbly and in submission ended my prayer "not my will but thine be done". In that very instant of humility and giving up myself to His will as I prayed "... thine be done" God's everyday work, what we call a miracle, saved me from myself and my fear. My circumstances did not change but the strength to walk through the storm I faced suddenly laid me into a deep restful sleep.
http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2011/06/self-confidence-part-2-of-3-6292011.html
REFERENCES
pistus 4102, http://biblesuite.com/greek/4102.htm
peitho 3982, http://biblesuite.com/greek/3982.htm
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Publication 0179
intro
Fear is a killer. In training and before flying in combat I had to learn harness fear and shed the panic. Jesus, God had/has a great remedy to shed the panic and react to fear in a positive manner. Click the link for more on responding to your fears.
Please share the message on your Fb page as you like, and if you like, click the FB 'Follow' button to have notifications of these publications. For other messages like this, visit my FB page, or on FB visit-"A Daily Thought Group".
intro
Fear is a killer. In training and before flying in combat I had to learn harness fear and shed the panic. Jesus, God had/has a great remedy to shed the panic and react to fear in a positive manner. Click the link for more on responding to your fears.
Please share the message on your Fb page as you like, and if you like, click the FB 'Follow' button to have notifications of these publications. For other messages like this, visit my FB page, or on FB visit-"A Daily Thought Group".
http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/10/great-commands-of-bible-do-not-be-afraid.html
God in His wisdom, built a bit of fear in us, a good thing. But, if we do not follow His commands, it is a bad thing. In His grace, He teaches us how to overcome our fears. Click the link below.
http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/10/great-commands-of-bible-do-not-be-afraid.html
http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/10/great-commands-of-bible-do-not-be-afraid.html
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