Fear….Friend or Foe?

I’ve been thinking on fear lately, but more so it’s ability to drive a person in a direction that they may not usually take.

Covid’s aftermath is clear to us all. We all have our stories we could share. How criminal we felt when gathering eleven people in our homes, instead of the recommended ten. How we all, at some point, googled covid and it’s symptoms. The fear that passed through our minds for ourselves and for our loved ones. As the pandemic became a way of life for some, it became a constant reminder of fear to others. I have watched as fear of getting covid has kept people in their homes isolated. I have also watched as others got tired of being on watch and got on with their lives.

Fear has an ability to freeze a person dead in their tracks. Their brains shut down and they simply cannot move. On the contrary, fear can cause a person to run for their lives and harness a strength that is almost superhuman.

Fear can disable us in these scenarios and many others. But can fear be a friend? Can fear ever help us to overcome something? I say it can to a certain extent. It can be a motivator.

I had a pain in my lower back one week ago today. A pain that caused me to cry out in tears. Spasm was the culprit. As I laid in my bed not moving a muscle, a fear came over me. Many thoughts hit my brain and set it into overdrive. What is it? How can I stop it? Dear God, stop the pain! It was over in about 15 minutes. Then poof it was gone. I was left with a soreness and stiffness that I had become used to over the months.

Over the next week, fear of that pain returning caused me to finally stop my life and rest. This is hard for me to do, because I am driven most days. But after that pain, I forced myself, out of fear, to chill. It was hard to do but beneficial to my healing.

I am happy I had that fear of the pain. It’s what is helping me heal. I read an article on healing that was published extra into my Bible. It read that God heals some and some He does not. We, of course, must have faith in order for Him to work the miraculous. Remember, Jesus went back to his own land but did not so many works because of their lack of faith? Their unbelief. While God is choosing His verdict on whether we are healed or not, I think He wants to see us make an effort. The article said that maybe God doesn’t choose to heal us at times because there is a lesson to be learned in the pain or in the healing.

Of course God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and of a sound mind. I know that, I do. I just wonder how many times we could take a fear in our lives and use to better strengthen us rather than rebuking it and looking down one another or ourselves for feeling fear. While fear is a foe in most cases… I think we can make it friend by using it to better ourselves.

Image found on the internet

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