SermonStudio

"As night goes round the earth there are hundreds of thousands who should be sleeping, lying awake fearing a bully, fearing a cruel competitor, fearing lest they cannot make good, fearing some illness they cannot comprehend," wrote H. G. Wells. The word fear comes from the German word "(ge) fahr," which means danger, peril, and, basically, a trap. When you feel fearful, you have anxiety and agitation caused by the presence or nearness of some danger, evil, or pain. I believe our basic fears are caused by the "Dreadful D's": disappointment, disparagement, distress, disease, debilitation, destitution, dependency, death, and damnation. We need a way to handle our fears. High, positive, practical religion can do that for us.

The first thing we can do with our fears is to face them. In Moby Dick, the captain said, "I will have no man on my boat who does not fear a whale." Fear of some things is indeed the beginning of wisdom! We try to give our children some healthy fears about playing with matches, about bottles labeled "Poison," and, a little later, about the dangers of drugs and herpes.

The second thing we can do with our fears is to grace them. Grace is a gift of God. You can grace your fears by looking on them as gifts from God. Fear of disease, for example, has been a stimulus to medical research. Fear of ignorance has been a spur to education. "Education," said Angelo Patri, "consists in being afraid at the right time."

The third thing we can do with our fears is to place them. Playwright George Bernard Shaw was painfully shy. Yet he overcame his fear of public speaking because he was so intent on delivering the message he had. He did not solve his fears; he dissolved them by placing them into the fiery enthusiasm of a mighty purpose.