Overcoming Fear

Flying into Boston’s Logan Airport, I could tell we were too low. We had just cleared a garbage scow hauling the trash out to sea with hundreds of gulls feasting on the cargo and circling as they sought additional treats. If our engines ingested a bird, we were dead.  We could see a variety of boats heading for home as a blanket of fog was quickly covering the area. I could no longer see the runway lights from my seat at the window. The Delta DC 9-31 turned sharply to port onto final approach to runway 27. I was worried. We are too low. We may not make it!. Now, the plane was now only a few feet above the inky black surface.

The plane suddenly veered to starboard then back on course. “Did we swerve to avoid something or was it merely a wind correction?”  

The runway must be just ahead. It looks like we will make it. It was a weird sensation, this commercial jet was being flown like a fighter aircraft attacking an enemy outpost. Giving my seat belt an extra tug, I braced for the inevitable impact. Then we hit something. Like fingernails on a blackboard, the screams of bending metal shouted out. Loose items flew around the cabin, oxygen masks popped out from their storage places. Someone screamed. While we were still moving forward, the entire fuselage split open directly in front of me.

Then everything stopped. Dead silence! At a sporting event, people pause for a moment of silence in honor of people who have died. Then as suddenly as it began the silence was broken. Passengers screamed, sirens blaring and lights flashing announced the arrival of first responders.

I checked myself and found I was unhurt.  Releasing my seat belt, I got up and walked past rescuers as they burst through the gap in the fuselage. 

Outside, looking back at the wreckage, I thought, “I had better take the train home.”

It always happened this way.

It was a dream, but so real that I could almost smell the smoke. To this day that memory is still vivid. I had this identical dream four times in one year. It always involved a commercial airliner in which I was a passenger, but different planes and in different cities.

This time the dream had a had greater significance. One week after I dreamt about it, Delta Flight 723, to Boston, landed short of the runway in poor visibility, striking a sea wall about 165 feet to the right of the runway centerline and about 3000 feet short.  All six crew members and 83 passengers were killed. I had taken this same flight to Boston every month for the past year.

After that crash, I took the train from my home in Northern Virginia to almost every destination on the east coast and only flew when absolutely necessary. Near misses often bring on great fear, but the odds of another crash at the same place are astronomical. Fear causes us to rearrange our priorities and our activities. Fear limits our ability to accomplish what God calls us to do and will keep us from reaching our destiny.

We all fear many things. I am afraid of heights, bridges, rejection, and failure. Once, I climbed the 897 steps to the top of  Washington Monument and then could not look out the tiny windows to see the awesome expanse of the National Mall.

As a child, I waited before crossing a bridge until a large truck drove across. If the truck made it safely, then I would sprint to the other side. In school, I was afraid to run for a class office in fear that I would not be elected. Fear causes us to avoid doing things causing us to waste the gifts God has given us.

Below is a list of Americans top ten fears for 2018 Chapman University study

1. Corrupt government officials - 73.6%
2. Pollution of oceans, rivers, and lakes. - 61.6%
3. Pollution of drinking water - 60.7%
4. Not having money for the future - 57%
5. People I love becoming seriously ill. - 56.5%
6. People I love, dying - 56.4%
7. Air Pollution - 55.1%
8. Extinction of plant and animal species - 54.1%
9. Global Warming and climate change - 53.2%
10. High Medical bills - 52%

The root of most of our fears is the issue of control. We are afraid because we are not in control. When I was young I took flying lessons and flew the company’s Cessna 172 on business trips from Chicago to Ohio, Indiana and Michigan. I was never afraid of flying in a small plane. It was only flying commercial that caused me a problem because I was not in the pilot’s seat.  If we are in control, we are not often afraid. It is when we are not in control that we begin to fear.

Think about it, 

1. “When was the last time you were afraid? 
2. What were the circumstances?”  

The intensity of fear is indirectly proportional to the feeling of being in control. That is; the more you feel you are not in control of a situation, the more fear you feel.

Since the issue of control is the root of most of our fears, there is a simple sounding solution. 

We can overcome all our fears by accepting the fact that we are not in control, and trusting that the One in control really has our best interests at heart. 

 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, 

because fear involves torment.
But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

1 John 4:18 (NKJV)

Fear is a result of not trusting God!

As we come to the Lord and make Him Lord of our life, we relinquish control of our life. This is simple to say but the actual working out is very difficult. 

• We have to really trust God. 
• When we really trust God with all of our heart, we become a superhero for Jesus, 
• and can accomplish all that we were created for.

Where is God When You Need Him?

Two weeks ago, our furnace went out while we were under a severe winter weather warning. After a couple of days suffering while a technician tried a number of fixes, they pronounced the furnace dead. The cost of the new furnace busted our budget.

This discouraging incident was very tough financially, but there are so many others around us who suffer so much worse things such as being homeless in freezing weather and the loss of a loved one. In difficult times we can often become discouraged and wonder why God seems so far away.

“Where is God when we need Him?

St. John of the Cross, went through a time of feeling totally separated from God, coining the phrase "Dark Night of the Soul." If you are seriously trying to follow God, you will go through your own "Dark Night of the Soul" at some time. What can you do in difficult times?

Adverse circumstances discouraged God’s chosen people.

Seventy years after the Jewish nation was taken into Babylonian captivity, a remnant returned to their homeland. These were not bad people, they were a holy remnant. Hundreds of thousands had been taken to Babylon, but only fifty thousand returned to Israel. These were the ones most committed to the Lord and to the restoration of Israel. 

Their work was hard to rebuild and restore after 70 years of neglect.  They didn’t have a lot of money or manpower. They suffered crop failures, hostile enemies resisted their work, and they remembered easier times in Babylon. Each of these circumstances made them feel that God was far away.

Eighteen years after they returned they had made little progress due to any number of difficulties and setbacks. They were completely discouraged and wondered, "Where is this God we are serving? 

"Why was He so far away? Where is God?”

We have to remember that God has not moved! He may be waiting for you to do something.

Return to Me

The Lord responded to their questions through the prophet Zechariah.

"Therefore say to them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Return to Me," says the Lord of hosts, "and I will return to you," says the Lord of hosts." [Zechariah 1:3 (NKJV]

God assures them that He is not distant. If they would return to Him, He would return to them. In all of Scripture, this is the one prerequisite to receiving God's blessings and is stated in various ways; "Seek the Lord while He may be found," "Call upon Him," "Turn to Me with all of your heart," "Return to Me and I will return to you."

Turning back to the Lord is repentance. Personal repentance is always a prerequisite for fellowship with the Living Lord. Once they returned to Him, they would receive the spiritual blessings promised to Israel in Zechariah’s the eight visions that follow these words of God.

This is one of the strongest and most intense spiritual calls to repentance to be found in the Old Testament. God would not bestow comfort on unrepentant hearts. God's covenants with Abraham and David rendered certain the fulfillment of His purposes for Israel. But these covenants did not nullify the need for each generation of Israelites to be obedient to God in order to experience His promised blessings.

In today's church, there are some who would say, “We are New Testament Christians, that is Old Testament law and is no longer applicable.” But Zechariah’s words remind us of the words in the New Testament book of James;

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. [James 4:8 (NKJV)]

4 Steps to Back to God

James 4:7-8 (NKJV) Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 

1.     SUBMIT  to God

There are too many that believe submission is letting people walk all over them. Submission is not being a “Doormat.” Submission is being an “Elevator."

 Jesus submitted to the Father out of His Strength. [Phil 2:5-8] In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus submitted to die for the church.

We submit to the Lord by elevating Him above ourselves - Putting His agenda above our own, His will above our will, and His desires above our desires.

2.   Draw Near  to God

For many of us, it is extremely scary to come near to God, the creator of the universe, the all-knowing, all-powerful, and always present. We come near with trepidation, fearing He will strike us dead. Jesus provided us a way into the holy of holies, through His cross. We do not need to fear His wrath. Our fear is of losing contact with the one who loves us more than any human can love us and wants to help us.

Prayer, fasting, scripture reading, meditation, and other spiritual disciplines are all ways in which we come near to God.

3.    Wash your hands

We rebel because we want control over our situations.  There may be areas of sin that we do not want to give up. Or there may be areas of our strength where we do not think we need God. Sinfulness keeps us from fully repenting. How do we deal with our sin? Confession and repentance from sin! After healing many Jesus told them, "Go and sin no more."

1 John 1:9 (NKJV)  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

James 4:4  Every list of sin in the New Testament begins with sexual sin.

4.    Purify Your Hearts

We touch two separate kingdoms - the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of this world. You do not become purified by ceasing to sin. We have a problem obeying the "Ten Commandments" let alone following Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount." We purify our hearts by being So filled with God that there is no room for anything else. Worldliness is being so full of the world there is no room for God. Check your calendar, where do you spend your time? Check your checkbook. where do you spend your money? Check your heart and mind, where are your thoughts?

Return to Him

Sometimes we might wish that God would force us to return to Him, instead of wooing us to return out of our own choice. Nevertheless, God wants our freely given love, so He prompts us to choose Him and return to Him.

Are people today any more heavenly inclined than those of Zechariah's day? No, we - like the people in Zechariah’s day - must be responsive to the lessons of history if we do not wish to be destroyed:  

God is genuinely and deeply concerned about the state of His people. God solemnly promised to restore Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. This was an especially comforting promise considering the lowly condition of the cities of the "Promised Land" in Zechariah’s day. About four years from the time of this prophecy the temple was rebuilt. The Jewish people took the prophecy seriously.

As we prepare for the birth of that child in Bethlehem, let us prepare ourselves by returning to the Lord! 

Do not get caught up in the worldly activities surrounding Christmas, but become caught up of the anticipation of God coming.