Everyone responds differently to fear. While some responses are manageable, others can have devastating consequences. Let us learn how biblical characters coped with and overcame their most common fears.
Right from the Garden of Eden, we see how Adam and Eve hid from God, their Creator, out of fear of their nakedness compounded by guilt and shame, after the entrance of sin. The response of our loving God was one of compassion and redemption, and he restored their hope and their future. Perfect love drives out fear. Throughout the Scriptures, we see how God used ordinary, fearful men and women to accomplish extraordinary things, from the patriarchs to the apostles. If we could interview them individually, we might not be surprised to learn that they had battled fear but were able to overcome it with God’s help.
Today, Jesus invites us to come to him if we are weary and burdened. If we are not careful, the world has a way of instilling fear, guilt and shame in us. Overcoming fear does not mean being free of it. Rather, it is facing reality in the light of the revelation of Scriptural principles, burned into our conscience by the Holy Spirit. It is the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead that dwells in us.