Fear Not
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“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Nelson Mandela once stated, “I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” But we are reminded of Paul’s exhortation to Timothy above. When you are in the company of great people like men of God, your parents, or elders in places like your home, school, church, or workplace, or when you move from one level of life to another, there will always be fears. It is a natural feeling, but I encourage you to not let your fears control you. A psychological study at a prominent university made a startling discovery about how fear controls your actions. The study involved 10 participants (students) where nine of the participants were. Two lines were drawn on a blackboard, one shorter than the other. Each student was told to identify the shortest line. One by one, each of the nine students did as they were instructed and claimed the shorter line was longer than the other line. The tenth person knew they had picked the wrong line but since the other participants seemed so confident, he also picked the short line. He was afraid to be different than the rest!
Henry David Thoreau challenged a generation of young minds when he told the world that he “marched to the beat of a different drummer”. He didn’t want to do things just because everyone else did it. Rather, he listened to a cadence set by a distant conductor. Thoreau had to be courageous enough to face his fears and do the right thing. For you, this may mean refusing to participate in activities that clearly violate your principles. It may mean supporting that which your mind tells you is best, even if it’s opposite of the crowd. It may also mean reaching inside yourself (even when you’re afraid) for inner strength needed to face the enemies of life.
God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power and strength. Prepare, think it through, seek spiritual guidance, and then stick to your guns, come what may! Everyone has fears. It isn’t a matter of whether or not you have fears, it is whether your fears control you.
Ps. Shibu Thomas IPC Hebron , Oklahoma
