Chapter 2: What Are You Afraid of?
This week’s message could never be more timely and relative to me personally.
God is calling all of us to deeper things. But before diving into an unknown and mysterious journey with God, what better place to start than asking ourselves “What am I afraid of?”
“Though this fear is natural, it’s not right. We are called to pattern out lives after the Way described in the Bible. We are not called to fear what following the Way of Jesus may require of us, but that doesn’t mean those fears won’t crop up. A life of following Christ requires relinquishing those fears when they do come.”
Discovering our fears is one of the most vulnerable place to be. I say, ‘Ignorance is bliss; what you don’t know cannot hurt you.’ However, if we are truly serious about our pursuit of God, shouldn’t we first tackle our secret fears that could possibly hinder us from wanting whatever God wants to get ourselves into?
In this second chapter, Francis Chan is challenging us to face our fears head on, to ask ourselves the hard questions that we have always dodged, to challenge familiar views that might have crippled us to see the fullness of God, and to open up our minds to the Holy Spirit so that we can let go of all our fears when it comes to truly following Jesus.
1) Identify and deal with your fears.
We will focus on the four kinds of fears listed below. Which of these fears do you currently have?
Fear of disappointments
Fear of losing and giving up control
Fear of other’s perception
Fear of quenching the Holy Spirit
Fear of Disappointments (What if God Doesn’t Come Through?)
Having disappointments is a normal event in a person’s life. People always fall short of our expectations and disappoint us all the time. We also disappoint ourselves from our own personal standards more often than not. Such disappointments are rather forgivable and we can make allowance for because after all, we are all human. But what about fearing that the God of the Universe will fail us and disappoint us? What if our heartfelt prayers seem to fall on deaf ears? What if our appeals for healing, peace, comfort, safety do not seem to cross the other side of heaven? What if we cannot see the Spirit of the Living God bearing fruit in our lives? What if God doesn’t come through at times when we need Him the most?
“I can’t imagine how much it pains God to see His children hold back from relationship with the Holy Spirit out of the fear that He won’t come through. How much it grieves Him to watch His children ignore the promises He’s made throughout Scripture due to fear that those promises won’t be kept!”
Can you recall a time in your life when you feared that God will fail you? Did it or did not change your view of God?
What happens when this fear comes to take over our hearts, is we tend to put God in a box — a box walled with doubts and risk aversion. We limit the endless powers of God within the minute confines of our fickle trust and we settle with everything less than God promised for us. Francis said that “we even convince ourselves that we don’t want more—that we have all the “God” we need or could want.” But do we really? Do we really believe in this stage of our life that God is the god that He claimed to be? Do we really believe that the Holy Spirit can indeed use us to do greater and mighty things in the world? Do we really believe that God keeps His promises and therefore is not a liar?
“You do not have, because you do not ask.
You ask and do not receive, because you act wrongly,
to spend it on your passions.”
When was the last time you asked God for something almost impossible? I dare you to believe again that God is able and powerful enough to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).
When was the last time you genuinely asked for God’s promise and God’s will rather than your own personal wants and insistence? I dare you to believe again that God only what is best for you when the answer is no (Jeremiah 29:11).
Fear of Losing and Giving up Control (Do I Even Want This?)
For me, giving up control of my life is like trying to jump off a plane ten thousands feet high from the ground. Terrifying is an understatement. As we all know, following Jesus is a commitment that requires costly sacrifices. Even costly is another understatement. I am most certain that every one of the disciples had surrendered something or someone in order to follow Jesus (an old lifestyle, livelihood, residence, family, time, and even their lives). And oh, let’s not forget, even Jesus had offered the most lavish sacrifice there is in all history—His dear life. But if we are totally honest to God and ourselves, we all have something or someone in our lives that we would rather keep inaccessible to God. We all have a comfortable zone that we would rather stay at than going out to the world, doing difficult and uncomfortable tasks for the kingdom of God.
“When it comes down to it, many of us do not really want to be led by the Holy Spirit. Or, more fundamentally, many of us don’t want to be led by anyone other than ourselves. . .
So, if you say you want the Holy Spirit, you must first honestly ask yourself if you want to do His will. Because if you do not genuinely want to know and do His will, why should you ask for His presence at all?”
What is that one thing that you are most scared to surrender to God? Does the thought of letting go and listening to the Spirit’s guidance ever scare you?
Jesus said that we should “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” in Matthew 22:37. But we know that the list of “with all your ___” goes on inexhaustibly in order to really be in a level that we are entirely and completely surrendered to God. Thus, we can never really get there in that level in this side of heaven and therefore, there is nothing to fear in this area. I believe that the giving up of control of our life is not a matter of how much, rather it is a matter of how well do we want to do this for God? Do we really want to do this? Do really want God to be the center of our lives, regardless of how it looks like?
Fear of Other’s Perception (Is my Reputation in the Way?)
We live in a time when image or reputation is everything. We care about what other people think of us more than we admit it. And i am very guilty of this in both the worldly and spiritual realm. But what’s crazy is that our society nowadays is that it adores the filthy and sullied lifestyles rather than the noble kind. Just look at the television shows that applaud adultery, divorce, casual sex, homosexuality, and other things that are contrary to the will of God. I have a recent personal experience that put me in an uncomfortable situation. Being the only Christian person in my circle of friends, I noticed lately that a few of my friends constantly joke about my Christian lifestyle—to a point that my lifestyle almost sounds absurd to them. One night, I felt the need to boldly ask, “What seems so wrong about how I live?”
Did you ever feel ashamed about your faith because of the fear of rejection by other people?
“As citizens of [heaven], we are called to live in a way that reflects the reality of the kingdom of God. When we become too overly concerned about our appearance, our spiritual reputation, our coolness, and our acceptance, we are living as citizens of this world rather than as ambassadors.”
I don’t think my friends intentionally wanted to persecute or ridicule me for my faith. However, we do need to remember that real persecutions (and the worst kinds) are happening all around the world as we speak. According to 1 Corinthian 1:18, '“For the Word of the Cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” Instead of succumbing to the patterns of this world and falling into the temptation of being like the world, we need to care more about “seeking the truth concerning the Spirit of God and then living in light of the truth, holding to [God’s] promises, and enjoying [our] relationship [with God].” After all, what is the kind of legacy and reputation do we want to leave this earth? What reputation does matters at the end of our life, at the day of judgment?
Fear of Quenching the Holy Spirit (The Good Fear)
“I think that quite often we worry a lot more about how people will respond to us than we do about how the Holy Spirit of God will respond. . . But rarely (if ever) do we consider whether our lifestyle or actions are grievous to the Spirit of the living God.”
Per Francis, this is the legitimate fear, but is too often to be ignored. We need to stop living as though the Spirit of the Living God is not inside of us, if indeed it is dwelling in us. Paul also urges us to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:12-13). We are to be “children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation” (verse 15) ; thus we need to let out lights shine. And we can only do that if we live according to God’s purpose, without quenching the Spirit.
PRAYER
“In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence,
and His children will have a refuge.
The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
that one may turn away from the snares of death.”
Proverbs 14:26-27