Week 30 Sunday
Week 30 Sunday
Fear: The Destroyer of Inner Unity
Proverbs 1:33; Isaiah 8:11-13; 1 John 4:18
Of all the things that destroy inner unity, fear is perhaps the most devastating and the most prevailing. We saw that there was a biological fear that produced efficiency, but there are other fears that paralyze. The victory over fear is an essential part of our victory in victorious living. Without it, there is no victorious living, for fears divide us and paralyze us.
As I was speaking before an audience, a very intelligent and beautiful Parsee lady on the front bench fainted. I wondered what I had said to cause her thus to faint, but on inquiry found it was this: as she sat there the face of a woman, whom she greatly feared, came before her, and as a result she fainted. All her culture, all her intelligence, all the spiritual atmosphere of that meeting were nothing before that fear. Nature retreated into a faint.
A very able American doctor in Ceylon told me of one of his patients, a wealthy man upon whom he had operated and who was ready to be discharged from the hospital as cured. But his astrologer, whom he had with him, said the crisis would come the following week and therefore he should not leave the hospital. The next week he died—died from no other apparent reason except fear. Fear had snapped the will to live within him and killed him.
An old fable tells of a man accosting the Cholera, who was returning from a devastating visit to a city: “How many died?” the man asked.
“Eighty thousand,” Cholera replied, “but I touched only twenty thousand.”
“And the rest?”
“Oh, they died from fear.”
There is no doubt that fear is the most paralyzing thing in human life. “I was afraid, and I went and hid my valuable coin in the ground” (Matt. 25:25 CEB). Fear paralyzes us and paralyzes our endeavors.
We must gain victory over all fears. Can it be done? Yes, thank God, yes!
O Christ, I thank you that I need not be the victim of any fear. But teach me the clear road to that victory, and I shall walk in it. Amen.
Week 30 Monday
Fears from Early Shocks
Psalm 34:4; Ecclesiastes 12:1-6; 2 Timothy 1:7; Hebrews 2:15
Some of our fears come from early shocks. The mind, always wishing to forget the unpleasant, drops the incident that caused the shock down into the subconscious mind and closes the door upon it. There it works its silent havoc, causing nervousness and general upset.
Leslie D. Weatherhead tells of an officer who, during World War I, would stand on the parapet of the trench rather than get down into the dugout. Some thought it bravery, but it was really fear of a closed place. He found the reason: as a child, he met in a narrow alleyway a fierce dog that attacked him. That attack in a narrow alley left a fear of closed places upon him.
Now, what is to be done with a fear like that? Repress it? Try to forget it? Nothing worse. It must be brought up to the surface and faced. The incident must be gently and quietly looked at. That bringing it up and looking at it will draw its sting. It will be seen as a childhood incident, with no right as the basis of a lifelong fear. The complex is dissolved. The incident is related to the rest of the life.
A lady missionary seeking the victorious life was found to have a dread of deep water, and therefore never learned to swim. On inquiry, I found that in early childhood she came near drowning, and it had left a shock and with it a fear. Obviously, there could be no fully victorious life until that fear complex was dissolved. And the only way to dissolve it was by learning to swim and by going into deep water, which she did. So she dropped her fear into the deep, deep lake! And it has never troubled her again.
O Christ, I come to you to take from my inner consciousness all basis of fear, for I know I have no business to be afraid of anything—of anything—if you are my Redeemer. Amen.
Week 30 Tuesday
The Fear of the Herd
Nehemiah 6:10-14; Matthew 14:5; Luke 22:6; 23:23-24; John 9:22; Acts 26:17
The fear of the herd suppresses Christians and makes them conform to the average, and the average is always below Christ’s way. We take on “protective resemblance” to our environment and fit in, become mediocre, and are slowly de-Christianized. We are afraid of being strange. And yet it is just that strangeness that may be necessary to save you and the herd. For often, the herd survives only when some member becomes different and shows a higher method of survival.
Nevertheless, the herd demands conformity, and it will persecute those who depart from its standards. Fall below its standards, and it will punish you; rise above them, and it will persecute you. Or it may ridicule you, and sometimes that is worse. A French officer, riding in front of his lines inspecting his troops, was thrown off his restive horse in an ungainly fashion. The troops laughed. The officer went and resigned his commission. He could not stand ridicule. But a simple laugh on his part would have saved the situation.
And that suggests the remedy. When ridiculed, simply laugh back, knowing that in the end you will laugh longest and perhaps loudest. You have a better basis for laughter. But deeper still, to get rid of the fear of the herd, we must surrender the herd, we must acknowledge in our inmost spirit no dominance save that of Jesus Christ. After I had become a Christian I went past the crowd on the street with whom I had associated, and one of them called out in derision, “Hello, Stanley, going down to see Jesus?”
“Yes, I am,” I quietly replied, to their astonishment and my own. But I knew in my heart of hearts that by that defiance the fear of the herd was broken. I was free, not only from them, but to come back to them with what I had.
O Christ, deliver me from the fear of what the herd will say, and give me a deeper susceptibility to what you will say. For I must be delivered from all fear. Amen.
Week 30 Wednesday
The Fear of Failure
Isaiah 40:29; Matthew 25:25; Luke 21:26; Hebrews 12:3
Like the one-talented man, many do not attempt anything with their talents because they are afraid of failure if they did. So, like this man, who went off and hid his talent in a hole in the ground (see Matt. 25:25), they too end in emptiness and futility—in a hole in the ground. Fear produces the very failure that we fear. Many do not start the Christian life because they are afraid they would fail if they did. So they never start. Fear feeds on failure, and failure feeds on fear.
To know victorious living, we must conquer this fear of failure. But how? First of all by looking at it at its worst. Suppose you should fail, would you be any worse off than now? Hardly, for in a world of this kind, by doing nothing you are now failing, for to do nothing is failure. By doing nothing, you are living in a constant state of failure.
Again, suppose you did fail in obeying what you felt was the call of God. Would you really fail? Hardly, for your very obedience is success. It is not your business whether you succeed or fail; it is your business to be true to the call of God as you know it. Results are in God’s hands. Besides, God has a way of turning even failure into ultimate victory. The cross is the world’s supreme failure. When Jesus dropped his head on his pulseless bosom and died, everything had crashed. But had it? Ask your own heart! If it is like mine, it clings to that Failure as the one hope of the race. So God has a way of turning the cross of your failure into supreme success. The seed sown fails and dies, but in its failure a new life springs up.
Therefore, away with fear and forward with Christ! Where? Anywhere, provided it be forward!
O you who saw your kingdom crash about you on the cross and still held your heart above the crash of things, give us the power this day to be unafraid of fear. Amen.
Week 30 Thursday
The Fear of Destitution in Old Age
Psalms 23:1; 34:10; Isaiah 46:4; Philippians 4:19
In a competitive order, fear of destitution in old age is real. Almost all of this fear could be cured by collective action. In a world of plenty, no one has a right to be haunted by the fear of what will happen in old age. One day we shall provide for honest destitution in old age and banish it, and with it the fear that accompanies it. But in the meantime, what shall we do?
Feverishly pile up to provide against it, is the world’s answer. Hardly the Christian answer, for by my having more than I need, others have less than they need. The Christian conscience can scarcely stand for that. Jesus said, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well” (Matt. 6:33). What were “these things”? Food and clothing. God guarantees you those two things—not motor cars and fine houses—if you put God’s kingdom first. Aren’t these two things enough for life?
Listen to Epictetus, born a slave a half century after Christ:
Is it possible for a man who is naked and homeless, without a wife, without a country, to be happy? See, God has sent such a man to Rome to teach you that it is possible. I possess nothing but heaven and earth and this old cloak. But what do I want? Do any of you see me going about with a sad countenance?
If a pre-Christian can say that, then how much more a Christian?
Will you starve? I have lived in the poorest country on earth for twenty-nine years, and while there may have been people dying of starvation during that time, I haven’t seen one. How much possibility is there that I shall see you as that one? Besides, if you should die of starvation in serving God, haven’t others died for him a martyr’s death? Then why not a martyr’s death by starvation? Even at its worst, it might be glorious! Then away with fear! Your Lord lives.
O Christ, I thank you that I can live as you lived, a happy, trustful child of the Lord, without fear. Help me to begin it today. Amen.
Week 30 Friday
The Fear of Being Dependent on Others
Psalm 71:9, 18; Romans 15:1; 1 Corinthians 12:20-27
There are many who, while not afraid for themselves, are afraid that their actions in obeying God will cause suffering to those whom they love. I saw a man in a crisis decide his whole life course on the basis of the fear that to take the higher course might cause inconvenience to his family. It was a tragic mistake. Our obedience to Christ is bound to cause suffering to those we love. We are all bound up in a bundle of life together, and we cannot wait to act until we can be sure that we alone will get the consequences. If we did, we should never act.
Jesus’ acting on the will of God involved his whole family in a cross, and also in a resurrection! It will work both ways. A part of this fear of hurting others is the fear of being dependent on others in old age. Some of this springs from a false pride. We don’t want to be dependent. Nonsense. We are all dependent, every moment of our lives, both on God and humanity. To act as if we weren’t is silly, superficial pride. If we honestly contribute to others during our earning period, why shouldn’t others contribute to us when we need it? You took care of this younger generation when it was helpless; why shouldn’t this younger generation take care of you when you are old and helpless? It will probably do them good to have this responsibility; it may save them from selfish isolation. So the crucifixion of your pride may turn out for their redemption. Moreover, if you accept the situation joyously and sweetly, you may be the kind of person they will delight to take care of, and would miss if they didn’t have the opportunity.
Then away with all fear of being dependent. Be dependent on God and humanity, and do it joyously.
O Christ, we thank you that you have shown us the way. You broke the heart of your mother and made it well again. Help us to launch out with you, no matter the cost, and to whom. Amen.
Week 30 Saturday
Negativism
Ecclesiastes 12:5; Isaiah 51:12-13; Matthew 5:15; 1 Peter 3:13-16
Another form of fear that modern psychology describes is negativism. People with inner conflicts find it hard to be positive in their attitudes and decisions, so they retreat into the negative. When a proposition or opportunity is presented to them, their first impulse is to reject it. Almost everything comes to them first as difficulty. As a consequence, they live in an almost chronic state of no. They cannot gather up the forces of the soul within themselves sufficiently to say yes. They are negative natures.
Such negative natures cannot lead others. It is the positive, hopeful, affirmative type that becomes a leader. Besides, to be negative is to be unchristian. The Christian is positive, affirmative, hopeful. Sometimes we say no, but only to say a greater yes.
Paul felt the sheer hopefulness, the sheer affirmative nature of the gospel and said, “in him is the yea” (2 Cor. 1:20 ASV), or, as Moffatt puts it, “the divine ‘yes’ has at last sounded in him.” To be in Christ, then, is to take a positive attitude toward life.
This morning in my daily reading, I read this: “So Judas, procuring a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, went there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was to befall him, came forward” (John 18:3-4). Jesus, “knowing all that was to befall him” did what? Prepared to compromise? to escape? to soften the blow? No, “came forward” to meet it! At the moment of the great no, the betrayal, he was positive.
Be positive even in the face of impending calamity. Wring out of it a victory. Keep affirming to yourself, “I can do all things [through Christ] who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). Then your negative fears will drop off before the rising sap of a new, abundant, affirmative life. For the Christian belongs to the great affirmation.
O Christ, I thank you that in your company my negative fears are dissolved, and I feel that anything—anything is possible. Help me to catch this spirit this day, from you. Amen.