Fear (June Hunt Hope for the Heart)
FEAR
No Longer Afraid
JUNE HUNT
- Gives practical advice and Biblical wisdom from June Hunt, a biblical counselor whose award-winning radio program
Hope For The Heart
is heard on more than 900 radio outlets around the world. For more than 25 years, she has counseled people, offering them hope for today’s problems. - Teaches the forms of fear like anxiety that can ultimately lead to panic attacks, phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and more.
- Gives you the tools to move from fear to faith—from panic to peace—through a deepened understanding of the love and power of Christ in your life.
Characteristics of Fearfulness
What Are Symptoms of Normal versus Abnormal Fear?
What Are Two Levels of Anxiety?
What Are Common Causes of Fear?
What Are Key Contributors to Fear?
What Are Physical Causes of Fear and Anxiety?
What Are Spiritual Causes of Excessive Fear?
What Is the Root Cause of Being Controlled by Fear?
How to Have Freedom from Fear
Forever!
What to Ask When You Feel Afraid
How to Move from Fear to Faith
How to Decrease Your Fear with “Desensitization”
How to Counter Your Fears with Facts
Do’s and Don’ts for Family and Friends
Dear friend,
The first time I remember seeing excessive fear, I was a young girl. Our family was visiting a ranch in Wyoming when my brother and I were suddenly startled by screams coming from an adjacent room.
Immediately, we ran into the kitchen to see what was eliciting such shrieks of terror. There we saw our mother and her close friend, Helen,
standing on top of the kitchen table screaming at the top of their lungs
.
What were they so afraid of? A poor, panic-stricken mouse quivering in the corner! (I assure you, that little mouse had far more to fear than did these giant, gargantuan human beings.)
Indeed, there was “a mouse in the house”! But truthfully, Ray and I were so tickled at seeing our mother, for the first time, acting in a way that we considered totally irrational that we—burst into gales of laughter. Their screams combined with our laughter made for a most interesting chorus of contrasts. (It was funny to us, but not to her!)
Most children like to torment their parents—of course, all in the name of fun! And we were no exception. Therefore, when a mousetrap occasionally caught a wee mouse by the tail, my brother and I proceeded to put the live little mouse inside an empty mayonnaise jar.
Then everyone
(especially Mother) could clearly see all of its tiny features.
After poking holes in the lid so the mouse could breathe, we made our surprise presentation. “Mom, we have a gift for you,” we declared with mischievous smiles. Mother returned a warm smile. Then as we abruptly presented the trapped mouse with great fanfare, naturally she would squeal. And naturally, we would break into gales of laughter.
For years I’ve been familiar with the old saying: “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” How much wiser I would have been if I had figured out that “
Fun is also in the eye of the beholder
.” For, indeed, we had fun at our mother’s expense. While she was good-natured about our pranks, our presentations could have sent her into a full-blown panic attack!
Now today, if we make the decision to refuse to be fear-based, we need a clear understanding that “
Fear
is in the
mind
of the beholder.” This means that our thinking must be conquered before our fear can be quelled.
Interestingly, God never assumes we will live without fear. In fact, His Word specifically addresses fear by telling us to say,
“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You”
(Psalm 56:3 NASB). Notice, this verse does not say if, but—
“When I am afraid.”
Yes, undeniably there will be times when you and I will be afraid. God knows this to be true.
However, we shouldn’t be
consumed
by fear. We shouldn’t quiver and quake and quit! Instead, we should simply say to God,
“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.”
Only then can our hearts truly be at peace.
When you find yourself in fear-producing situations, my prayer is that you will say six times,
“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.”
If you consistently choose this one simple step, you will slowly see yourself moving from fear to faith.
Yours in the Lord’s hope,
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
(Romans 12:2 NIV)
FEAR
No Longer Afraid
Imagine being terrorized, your life continually threatened, your heart gripped with fear.
Imagine every day waking to the thought:
This day could be my last day—the last for my family—the last for my friends!
Imagine living in the constant fear of being burglarized and brutalized, vandalized and victimized, mauled and murdered.
Now, all of a sudden, someone appears out of the blue, instructing you to do the unthinkable—
take action and fight those you fear!
But such an idea is impossible—even preposterous—especially for Gideon who is inclined to
flee
in the face of fear.
Now, imagine trying to thresh wheat in a winepress of all places! To thresh—to separate the chaff from the wheat—a gentle breeze in the outdoor air is needed to winnow the chaff. As all is thrown up into the air, both chaff and wheat, the wind blows away the lightweight chaff, and the heavier wheat falls to the ground. But in a winepress the surrounding walls prevent the wind from blowing in the center and threshing is not likely to be effective.
So here you are in hiding, fearing for your life, fighting an uphill battle for a few grains of wheat. At this point, the angel of the Lord appears, saying,
“The L
ORD
is with you, mighty warrior.”
He addresses you as what? What’s this
mighty warrior
?
Who, you?
Fear?
Imagine being asked to do something you know you can’t do. Like Gideon, rather than attempting to meet the challenge, you find yourself responding, “Thanks—but no thanks. You’ve got the
wrong
person.”
However, the angel announces that you are to lead the battle against your greatest enemy—an enemy that vastly outnumbers your army—one greatly feared by everyone and feared for good reason! The mammoth Midianites have been ravaging and ransacking your people at will, leaving death and destruction in their wake.
How?
“Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites [and other enemies] invaded the country. They ... ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys”
(Judges 6:3–4). Understandably, your heart is terrorized with fear.
- Fear
is a strong emotional reaction to a perceived imminent danger characterized by a fight, flight, or freeze response.
1 - Fear
can be real or imagined, rational or irrational, normal or abnormal. - Fear
acts as a protective reaction, placed in us by our Creator to activate all of our physical defense systems when we face real danger. Fear triggers the release of adrenaline in the body that both prepares and propels us to action often called “fight or flight.” - Fear
is a natural emotion designed by God. However,
fearfulness
is not designed by God, for fearfulness suggests living in a
state of fear
. - Fear
is a translation of the Hebrew word
yare
, which means “to be afraid, stand in awe or fear.”
2
When Gideon was trying to thresh wheat in the winepress and the angel of the Lord appeared to him,
“he was afraid”
(Judges 6:27).
Anxiety?
After the heavenly messenger delivers his initial instructions, Gideon quickly questions: “If the Lord is really with us, why has all this evil happened?” And Gideon makes it most clear—if God wants a deliverer,
I am definitely not the man for the job!
After all, he is the
least
in the family belonging to the
weakest
clan in the small tribe of Manasseh. Gideon exclaims,
“How can I save Israel?”
cowering with the angst of anxiety.
Gideon knows that the monstrous Midianites have a new weapon enabling them to make swift, long-range attacks against the Hebrews—rendering them virtually powerless. This terrible weapon is nothing other than
the camel
!
Without food or water and with heavy loads, they cover 300 miles in three or four days. At harvest time, the Midianites simply ascend from the desert and quickly cover the land
“like swarms of locusts
. The Midianite troops and camels, both
“impossible to count,”
strip Israel bare of everything edible. Then, loaded with their plunder, they return to the desert until the next harvest is ripe.
Existing like this for seven years reduces Gideon and all the people to threshing meager amounts of grain in winepresses—hiding food and themselves in mountain dens and caves. No wonder Gideon is fearfully anxious and fully persuaded that
“The L
ORD
has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian”
(Judges 6:13). Gideon’s continual fear has a “close cousin” called
anxiety
.