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Remember the first time fear was mentioned in the
Bible? Genesis 3:10 The man
said, "I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was
naked; and I hid myself."
The definition of fear, according to the International Standard Bible Encylopedia Online sounds something like this:
"Fear is a natural and, in its purpose,
beneficent feeling, arising in the presence or anticipation of danger, and
moving to its avoidance; it is also awakened in the presence of superiors and
of striking manifestations of power, etc., taking the form of awe or reverence."
Different
things can cause different levels of fear. Let’s see what is going on when you feel what we call fear.
The website How Stuff Works has all the information you may want or need for
later,
but let’s look at the general path of fear.
but let’s look at the general path of fear.
5 parts of the brain are involved, each with their own
jobs.
There are 2 pathways that provide for the “fight or flight”
response or the more thoughtful response.
Quick path:
1. Thalamus-collects incoming data from eyes,
ears, mouth, nose, and skin
2. Thalamus
sends information to Amygdala
3. Amygdala-read
information, determines a threat, stores the memory, activates Hypothalamus
4. Hypothalamus
sends body into overdrive in the nervous system and the bloodstream (hormones
released-adrenaline, noradrenaline, adrenocorticotropic stimulates 30 other
hormones)
5. Results-body
speeds up, muscles tense (tiny muscles in skin create “goose bumps”), increased
alertness, heart rate and blood pressure increase, pupils dilate, veins
constrict to send blood to major muscle groups (causes “chill”-less blood in
skin to keep it warm), blood-glucose level increase, smooth muscles relax (more
oxygen into lungs-gasp), non-essential systems (digestion, immune) shut down so
all energy can be used for emergency, trouble focusing (brain focusing on big
picture not details-especially true for women)
Slower path:
1. Thalamus-collects incoming data from eyes,
ears, mouth, nose, and skin
2. Thalamus
sends information to Sensory Cortex
3. Sensory
Cortex interprets the information and determines that there might be more than
one interpretation of the information
4. Sensory
Cortex sends information to Hippocampus
5. Hippocampus
determines context using previous memories collected and additional clues from
previous events
6.
Hippocampus uses clues to determine if the danger is
real and signals the Amygdala
7.
Amygdala shuts off fight-or-flight response is
necessary through Hypothalamus (thus
the person feels a moment of terror before calming down)
Problems come when the body has trouble calming down
or when the brain sends a body into overdrive without much stimulus. This can occur easily in people who are
already in “overdrive” because of lack of sleep, stress, pain, or a personality
that craves control and thus is always in a state of “high alert” in order to
manage situations.
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| http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp-5uPKUWsI |
In this Harry
Potter scene the boggart becomes what you are most afraid of, so the students are learning to control the thing that causes them fear.
So the trick is to make your fear and worry and
anxiety something that you can control.
We know it won’t happen by magic, but it can happen with God’s help.
You can be sure that our God understands these
feelings. He created them in us to
help us survive. He has
experienced them as Jesus Christ when he walked on this earth in a human body just
like ours. As a child, Jesus had
to learn to control and understand His fear in order to survive, just as we do
today.
This understanding is proven again and again in the
Bible.
There are 12 words for fear in the Bible.
In the Old Testament we see---
yir'ah--"fear," "terror,"
"reverence," "awe," most often "the fear of God,"
"fear of Yahweh" and also of "fear" generally
yare'--"to be afraid," "to fear,"
"to reverence" "to be feared,"
pachadh-- "fear," "terror,"
"dread"
pallatsuth-- "horror"
mahar-- "hasty," ready to flee (for fear).
In the New Testament, we see--
phobos--"fear," "terror,"
"affright"
phobeo-- "to put in fear"
phoberos-- "fearful," "terrible"
phobetron--"something fearful," "a terrible
sign or portent"
deilia-- "timidity," "fear,"
Deilos-- "fearful," "timid,"
ekphobos-- "frightened out (of one's senses),"
"greatly terrified"
eulabeia--properly, "caution,"
"circumspection," is used in the New Testament for godly fear
These words remind me of our own word list for fear that we put together in Session 1.
These words remind me of our own word list for fear that we put together in Session 1.
Being afraid or the word fear is mentioned 361 times in the
Bible. If you include the words worry and anxious in this count, you have more
than 1 verse for every day of the year! Sometimes men are afraid of other men,
sometimes men are afraid of God.
But the words “Do not be afraid (worried, anxious)" are actually said
over 100 times, often by Jesus, who as a man totally understood fear on our level. Most of these times, it is God saying
these words to His people. A people in whom you are included if you believe in
Jesus as your savior. A people
into whom you have been adopted when you proclaim Jesus as your Savior. So you can actually put your name,
right into those verses.
So, how does this work day to day…….
It takes the form of a basic statement provided to me
in Beth Moore’s book, Believing God.
She writes 5 of these statements and the first is—
God is who He says He is
Let’s
think about that for a minute—Who does God say He is? What are some of the truths you know about God?
So once
you’ve established that in your mind, it is an easy step to statement number 2—
God Can Do What He Says He can Do
If God has told us, over 100 times to not be afraid,
I guess He can handle whatever situation is making us afraid. We have to remember a verse that we
will be memorizing during our readings this week--
However, as it is written: "What no eye
has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived" --
the things God has prepared for those who love him—1 Corinthians 2:9
If He prepares it, He controls it, and we can feel
secure in that.
Fear is something to be conquered if it is not going
to hold you back, if it is not going to hold you captive, if it is not going to
keep you away from the plans that God has for you. So, how do we consistently
conquer fear? With a strong belief
system and an arsonal against the one that is whispering lies in your
head. Your arsonal as we have
said, are the bible verses that uphold you, that as you practice them, can pop
into your head and become the words of prayer that sometimes you cannot think
of when you are overcome by that fear and worry. Remember the Sword of the Spirit in our Spiritual Armor is
the word of God. So, that is the
first place to turn, when you need to conquer. And if the verses get hard, back
up to those simple belief statements:
God is Who He says He is
God can do what He says He can do
Our belief system is our first defense. And that belief system can provide you
with a vision that can see beyond the thing that you fear or worry about and
fill your eyes with something bigger and better—a hope and a future. That is our goal—to get our emotions
under control, so that we can become all that God wants us to be—peacemakers in
this world.
Beth Moore adds to this thought in her book Believing
God, which sustained me through a very fearful time-my son's battle with leukemia. She talks
about the Israelites after they had wandered in the desert for 40 years. Through those years they had learned to
totally depend on God. Those who
had complained and feared and been “stiff-necked” were all dead and Joshua was
now supposed to begin leading this new generation to conquer the land. Listen
to her comparisons of how belief systems can move you into a whole new place.
“One way we can measure our belief system’s
effectiveness is to examine how consistently our biblical position as “more
than conqueror” (Rom. 8:37) is fleshed out in our reality. The children of Israel showed they were
God’s conquerors on earth by conquering.
Victory always assumes a counterpart defeat. We will never take our places as “more than overcomers” with
nothing to overcome. We will never
be victors without opponents. As
we will continue to see in our journey, God gave the Israelites the Promised
Land but told them they’d have to take what was theirs in fierce battle. Why? Probably one reason was so they’d develop the strength to
keep it once they conquered it.
Surely another was to let them experience the thrill of victory that
only a battle hard fought can bring.
In God’s economy, much of what is worth having is proved worth fighting
for.
Like the Israelites, you and I have been promised spiritual ground for great and abiding victory on a turf where our enemy stands in defiance. If you're not presently occupying your promised land, rest assured the devil is. Are you going to stand by and let him get away with that? God has given you land beloved, but he's calling you to go forth and take it. Your enemy is standing on your God-given ground daring you to take possession of it. Are you going to let him have it? Or are you going to claim your inheritance? Possession is the law of the promised land. Red Rover, Go Over.
The
Creator of heaven and earth—the One with the entire universes and its riches at
His disposal—knows you by name, has planned a Promised Land for you, and longs
to bless you. He wisely reserves
the right to require your cooperation.
Many promises of God are unconditional, but His promises of
full-throttle blessing, abiding, fruit-bearing, and conquering are not. Nothing in your life or mine is worth
forfeiting the places of promise where our own 1 Corinthian 2:9’s are
fulfilled. What God has prepared
for you is more than your ears have heard, your eyes have seen, and your mind has
ever conceived. Promised Land
theology becomes an earthbound reality only to those who cash in their fear and
complacency for the one ticket out of their long-inhabited wilderness.”
This week, as you study more about your emotions, my prayer is that God will move you toward your promised land of blessings.
This week, as you study more about your emotions, my prayer is that God will move you toward your promised land of blessings.
Resources—Session 2
Bible Gateway. http://www.biblegateway.com,
retreived on Nov. 23, 2013
Drumfrk13. Harry Potter and The Prisoner of
Azkaban-Boggart Scene, uploaded on Sep. 8, 2013, downloaded on Nov. 23,
2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp-5uPKUWsI
Layton, Julia. "How Fear Works" 13
September 2005. HowStuffWorks.com.
<http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/fear.htm> retrieved on 23
November 2013.
Lucado, Max. Safe in the Shepherd’s Arms. Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2009.
Mandkyeo. Emerson - Mommy's Nose is Scary! (Original), uploaded on Mar 14
, 2011, downloaded on Nov. 23, 2013 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9oxmRT2YWw
Moore, Beth. Believing God. Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2004.
Online Parallel Bible. http://biblehub.com,
retreived on Nov. 23, 2013
Orr, James. International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Online. Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co., 1939, Website
HTML, editorial descriptions, and images, 2013, retrieved from www.internationalstandardbible.com
on Nov. 23, 2013
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