CONQUERING OUR FEARS
Kings 19:3 Elijah was afraid and ran for his his life.
It is certainly not hard to understand why Elijah was afraid and was running for his life. He had just done one of the most gutsy things I can imagine. I personally think this even tops David fighting Goliath. Elijah was a prophet of the Lord, and was living in the Northern Kingdom where King Ahab and most of the people worshipped Baal or Asherah. Earlier Elijah had declared a drought to come upon northern Israel as a sign that they were in rebellion and disobedience to the Lord. The drought had brought a famine so bad that Queen Jezebel began a campaign of killing the Lord’s prophets. But as much as they tried they could not find Elijah. They had even went to other countries to find him but they could not. Finally Elijah came to King Ahab with a challenge that he probably thought he couldn’t refuse. The priests of Baal were to have a showdown with Elijah to see whose god was really God. If King Ahab would have backed down or just killed Elijah it would have been a sign to the people that King Ahab didn’t believe that Baal was greater than the Lord. This would have made matters even worse regarding how the people already felt about the drought.
The prophets of Baal and Elijah were to each make an altar and sacrifice a bull on it but not burn it. This would be the challenge to prove who was really God. The altar that would have fire come down on it and burn up the sacrifice would be the true God. When the fire from the Lord consumed Elijah’s sacrifice, stones of the altar and even the water it was easy to see that Lord was God. Because of this Elijah had all of the prophets of Baal killed. This infuriated Jezebell so much she swore she would kill him. Elijah knew that this was no little threat on her part, because she had already killed many of the Lord’s prophets. So Elijah began to run for his life. Being afraid is not a bad thing. It is a natural instinct that God has given us to help protect us. Without it a person would be constantly be doing something that would bring sorrow, punishment or even death. God even uses fear of his punishment to help people to obey him and even seek forgiveness of their sins through faith in the grace offered by Jesus. Fear can be used in both positive and negative situations.
A negative case of fear might be when it keeps us from doing something good or right, because of possible reprisal on us. Fear can keep us from having faith to trust in the Lord. It can bind us in such a way to rob us of victory and blessings. Fear can be used for us or against us. God can use it, and so can Satan, the powers of darkness and the evil of his world.
It is up to us to master our fears, or our fears will control us! Only with God’s help can we master our fears as he helps us master what makes us fearful. This is why I believe that Moses, Joshua and even all of Israel was told to be strong, courageous, not discouraged or terrified. They knew that there would be battles ahead for them, and at times it would appear that they had no hope of victory. But this is where trusting in the Lord comes into the picture. Whether it is fighting a mighty army or victory over sin and death, the Lord must become our strength. And he will if we only give him a chance. We can find no greater strength or comfort than in the arms of Jesus. He stretched his arms as wide as possible on Calvary’s cross, so he could wrap us all in them.
There is no enemy greater than our God and Savior Jesus Christ. Every knee will bow before and confess him to be Lord. This is not an option! The only reason Jesus will not help us is if we refuse to seek his help!
Prayer: Lord Jesus, you know fear can grip our very soul. It can paralyze us in such a way that we can’t hardly move. Please help us to know positive fear from negative fear. Those things we need to avoid please help us to run from them. Those fears that are being used by Satan, the powers of darkness and the evil of this world, please help us to be strong and courageous in you so we can have the victory. Please help us to always yield to our fear of hurting you, because we love you so much. We ask this in your holy name.
