Fear Not! -- part 2

Today we continue our discussion of the topic FEAR NOT! If you did not read last week’s entry where we introduced our theme, I would encourage you to do that first before moving on to today’s blog discussion.

Luke 21:25-26 reveals that a great season of fear will come to the earth. ²⁵ “And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; ²⁶ men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.” 

Fear will increase as sorrows and tribulations increase. False Christ’s and false prophets will arise giving people false hope.

We all realize that television, movies, radio, the internet, social media, and technology have increased the communication and transference of fear to our society. Trying to compete for ratings, these formats look for sensational news stories of human dilemma such as kidnappings, natural disasters, murders, terrorist plots, and such. Of course, it is necessary to tell the news, but unfortunately most of the news is negative. We need to feed our spirits and minds on God’s Word to counter the information from the world. Mothers of Nations, good reports will dispel fear!

One day we hear sugar can kill you, then it’s butter. If we lived by all the nutritional messages that bombard us, we wouldn’t eat anything! We instead should bless our food and ask God to protect us, eat reasonably, exercise, and endeavor to live a healthy lifestyle. I personally know of a person who took so many vitamins and supplements to counteract all these fears about her body that she actually overdosed.

Probably the biggest fear most people contend with is the fear of death. Even Christians who are born again experience fear of death because it is an unknown. We understand that there is an afterlife, but having never been there, fear can come in. Again standing firmly on the promises of God’s Word, even relating to death itself, will carry us through to our heavenly reward!

Let’s now look at a few statistics I discovered about fear.

• 54 % fear a car crash.
• 53 % fear cancer.
• 50 % fear having inadequate social security benefits.
• 40% fear not having enough money to retire.
• 36% fear food poisoning from meat.
• 35% fear getting Alzheimer’s disease.
• 34% fear pesticides in foods.
• 33% fear being a victim of violence.
• 32% fear the inability to pay current debts.
• 30 % fear exposure to foreign viruses (since Covid this has most likely skyrocketed)
• 28% fear getting AIDS.
• 25 % fear natural disasters.
• 24 % fear unsafe buildings.
• 23 % fear losing their job.
• 22% fear being in a plane crash.
• 21% fear suffering a work-related injury.
• 20% fear a stock market crash.
• 18% fear being a victim of mass violence.

As you can see, there are all kinds of fears that challenge our faith and our Christian walk. Next week we will dig deeper into some of these fears and search God’s Word for His promises to us to choose to FEAR NOT!

Blessings to you all,

Dr. Sharon Predovich