Remember The Fear Factor, a TV show in which wary contestants had to overcome their fear of snakes, spiders, heights and other phobias the show’s producers could come up with? I’d like to see a Christian counterpart, which could maybe be called The Faith Factor. Instead of jumping out of aircraft, being covered in tarantulas or swimming in a pool of sharks, the contestants could be forced out of private medical insurance, be made to live next to antisocial neighbours or end up to their necks in school fees, rate notices and power bills.
What? You’re there already? Well, okay, but The Faith Factor (unlike its negative counterpart) would encourage participants to believe that God could give them peace in the middle of such things because they trust in Him and His Son Jesus.
I once visited a Jewish museum and synagogue in another state and was amazed at the security precautions in place—starting at the front entrance of the museum. After recent atrocities I can understand why such precautions were necessary, and more so now. Terrorism is no longer limited to ethnic groups—it seeks to wrap its tentacles of fear around us all. The aim of terrorists is to instil fear on a large scale.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” said US president F. D. Roosevelt during World War Two. Fear itself is a powerful force that works on the inside while the things that cause fear loom larger and larger on the outside. Fear of the unknown or the unexpected can be intrusive unless we counter it with faith. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble,” writes the psalmist. “So we will not fear…” (Psalm 46:1-2) Jesus Christ said, “Do not be afraid.” “Phobia” comes from the New Testament Greek word for false fear. We attach it to the things we fear most (e.g. agoraphobia: fear of open spaces, and claustrophobia: fear of inner spaces).
The fear of death is the most persistent, according to the Bible. (Hebrews 2:15) But Jesus Christ died and rose again to set us free from that. We are not afraid to go to sleep at night because we know that if we don’t wake up in the morning, we will in the Resurrection (Daniel 12:2; John 11:11). Jesus said, “I am the Resurrection and the Life…” (Read the last verse of Psalm 4 before going to bed every night and the first few verses of Psalm 5 after waking up in the mornings.)
The way to overcome fear of any kind is to face it with faith. “Fear knocked at the door, Faith answered, and no one was there.” God doesn’t want us to have the heebie-jeebies when faced with the creepy-crawlies—things we fear most. Fear is faith in reverse gear. It’s time we switched to forward gear! Shrubs house spiders. Yesterday morning, I walked between two and got tangled strands of web in my hair. The spiders are nocturnal and so are not in them during the day but I quickly ran my fingers through my hair just in case.
Fear is like the spider in your hair that isn’t there—the sticky but empty web. Jesus crushed the snake’s head with his heel when he triumphed over Satan while on the Cross. His “heel” was his humanity. He said that we who believe will “tread on scorpions”–another symbol for fear. So, let’s face fear of every kind with Faith! And clear away any empty or leftover clingy cobwebs that we’ll be better without.