Thursday: The Mastery of Fear
WEEK 22
THURSDAY
THE MASTERY OF FEAR
2 Timothy 1:6-7
This mastery of unmerited suffering and making something out of it leads us to consider another mastery—the mastery of fear.
In the Gospel accounts Jesus is always saying, “Fear not.” He said more about fear than he did about sin, for he saw a brooding sense of fear over the hearts of people. It was the basic plague in most lives. From the first statement of the angel to Joseph, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear” (Matt 1:20 RSV), to the statement of Jesus to his disciples after his resurrection: “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me” (28:10 RSV); he was lifting the plague of fear from the minds and hearts of humanity.
He was lifting this fear, not by slogans or tricks played on the mind or by a back-slapping attitude of “Buck up; don’t be afraid”—no, not that—but by making men and women adequate to face anything that happened to them and thus making something out of it. That is the only real way of dealing with fear; everything else is dealing with symptoms. This is dealing with the disease. For the real disease is the feeling of inadequacy to face the problems of human living. That produces the fear. When the problem of inward inadequacy is solved, then fear drops away like a dead leaf. When we are inadequate, we don’t know what to do with life, so we retreat into fear and anxiety. But when we do know what to do with life, then there is no room for fear and anxiety. Confidence and faith push out fear and anxiety.
And the remedy was seen at work. If the Gospels exhorted people not to be afraid, the Acts exhibit a people who were not afraid. Between that exhortation and exhibition an adequacy had been introduced into the hearts of people. They were healed at the heart, so they could say to life, “Come on!” Here in the Acts is the least fear-ridden society that ever appeared upon this planet at any time in any place. But it was not a society that had gained peace and confidence by retreating from life. On the contrary, they walked into life and raised every issue that could be raised about life—and they did it unafraid.
O Master of fear, help me to master fear. Help me to look life in the face level-eyed and not be afraid. I can do this only as your adequacy takes possession of me. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: I am drawing on the divine adequacy; therefore fears are pushed to the margin and beyond.