Four Reasons Fear Is a Fraud

Matthew 6:25-27 – Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

Matthew 25:24-26 – He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, “Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.” But his master answered him, “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed?”

Most fears are frauds. They are not based upon reality and cause us to make unhealthy, unwise, and often unholy decisions, which in turn make us unhappy. We know of four reasons why a spirit of fear is a fraud.

1. Fear is godless. A spirit of fear is hopeless because it is godless. A spirit of fear compels us to look into the future and see only the worst possible outcome, ignoring that God will be there and likely has a different plan for our good. This is what Jesus was driving at when He said, “Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?”
2. Fear is a false prophecy. A false prophet is a person who predicts a future that never happens. When we are ruled by fear rather than faith, we become false prophets in our own lives, predicting a hopeless, apocalyptic future that does not come to pass.
3. Fear makes us selfish. When fear grips us, we think solely of ourselves in the same way that a person running out of a burning building is not concerned about whatever trouble a friend a hundred miles away might be going through at that same moment.
4. Fear makes us ineffective. When fear drives us, we can be so scared of failing that we become paralyzed and do not do the things that God asks of us. For example, Jesus talks about a man who was given a bit of money to invest but did nothing with it, saying, “I was afraid.”

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