Fear not!

Recommended reading Heb.2: 14-18. “Fear not” Someone said to me a while ago that these words are mentioned 365 times in the Bible (not sure if that is accurate); one for each day of the year. Sounds good to me! The Dictionary defines fear as: distress or alarm caused by impending danger or pain; be afraid of something or someone; feeling of anxiety about something; very unpleasant feeling etc. the list is long. When I was in Grade 3 in Tupi Elementary School, I always experienced ‘fear’ when the school dentist came. One day a dentist came for two weeks. Many of us school kids were frightened of the anticipated pain if the dentist put a huge needle into our gum. So I gathered a few friends to escape classes from our ‘scheduled class’ to avoid seeing him. There on Noranian’s hill (close to a public cemetery) we played ‘sliding’ ‘riding’ coconut palms for a whole day. It was fun! But then the following day, “I shall return” to school, without my parent’s knowledge that I was absent. We had to face this ‘hated’ dentist at the Home Economics building. Some of us boys were so scared, we were crying, holding one of the bed’s leg, because we didn’t want to sit on the dentist’s terrifying chair. Since ‘Norman’ loved ‘sweets’ one tooth was extracted.

As people grow older some of the fears we face are financial insecurity, health issues, broken relationships, broken dreams, and the fear of death. But the most fearful one, for those who have no “Blessed Hope” is the fear of death. For the believers in Christ we can take comfort because Christ came in human form to ‘destroy’ the works of the Devil. The word ‘destroy’ does not mean ‘annihilate’ for it is clear that Satan is still active, alive and very busy destroying lives. That is why our jails and rehabs are full of people. The word destroy means ‘render inoperative, make of none effect.’ Satan is disarmed. This means Satan has no power over death, the final authority is in the hands of God. Satan can only do what is permitted to him by God (Job.1:12; 2:6). We who trusted Christ have once and for all been rescued from Satan’s power and from the terrible fear of death. So “fear not” my brethren, because the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ have given us victory (1Cor. 15:55-58). This is all possible because of His Grace. All by grace and by grace alone.