Day 5 Fear not


I suppose we had better take a look at the Christmas story. (About time I hear you cry ! 😀)

First off, I have a bit of a problem with that word, 'story'. I run the sunday school programme for tiny kids in church and Im so aware that for kids that word very clearly implies ' make believe', 'pretend' 'made up' 'fictional' - not true. I actually think that we adults all carry that hangover from childhood too. When we refer to Bible ' stories' our language once again lets us down. They are not stories. They are histories. Happenings. Events. I think the enemy loves it when we refer to ' stories'. Just like the downgrading of 'global warming' to 'climate change' and 'fear' to 'anxiety' - the subtle change of emphasis is actually an erosion of the Truth.

Anyhow.....

The recounting of the birth of Jesus is littered with references to fear. (Luke chapter 1)

Zechariah - visited by an angel who announces that his elderly wife will soon be pregnant with John the Baptist.

Don't be afraid, Zechariah! God has heard your prayer, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son. You are to name him John. How glad and happy you will be, and how happy many others will be when he is born!

I've never stopped to consider before why this particular angel appeared to Zechariah and not to Elizabeth. Maybe its to show the difference between John and Jesus. John was being born into a priestly line as an answer to years of anguished prayer. John was an answer. Jesus was a gift. Zechariah , the man of God who spent his life dedicated to the temple, doubted and disbelieved. Mary, teenage girl, believed. Im sure it would all have been a bit topsy turvy for 1st century listeners. Which Im sure was the point.  Anyhow , both Z and M are told not to be afraid.

Mary.

Here is a teenage peasant girl who has found favour with God. Sounds nice doesn't it? Except that ' finding favour with God' in her particular situation means being pregnant. Ive been pregnant three times and believe me its a scary enough thing when you're a thirty year old with a husband and a family and a health service standing by. God's favour isn't necessarily a sweet, lovely, easy thing. It can be hard. But thats why God sent an angel to command Mary not to be afraid. She clearly was afraid, - angels are terrifying. The greek word used in verse 19 which is usually translated as ' troubled' actually means 'to be troubled,' 'to be disturbed,' or 'to be agitated.' It describes a state of inner turmoil, fear, or confusion experienced by a person or thing.

In my many musings about fear one thing seems very clear to me. In the alleged 365 times the Bible tells us not to fear the words are a commandment not a suggestion. When we read ' do not murder' ' do not commit adultery' ' do not steal/blaspheme/covet ' we understand that these are things we must not do. We have a choice. We need to make the right choices. We have all felt the temptation to steal something - even if its just the pen from the office desk. Our consciences, made alive by the Spirit of God steer us away from sin but it's our minds which make the decision to say no. We know that the excuse ' I couldn't help it' doesn't wash. We are responsible. We have agency to do the right thing.

But somehow we treat the command ' do not fear' differently.

And maybe here is the difference between Zechariah and Mary. They were both told not to fear. Only one of them obeyed.

Zechariah said to the angel, “How can I know that what you say is true? I am an old man, and my wife is old, too.”

Then Mary said, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.

Both of them questioned how this thing that the angel had promised could possibly happen. But Zechariah clearly doubted in his heart and was struck dumb. Mary believed in her heart. Doubts come when trust is absent. Trust is absent when fear is present.



Lord, today I think about times You have spoken to me and I have doubted You. Times when I have not fully trusted that Your favour is with me and that I am called and chosen.  Help me to respond like Mary - without fear, trusting that You are my good good Father and that Your plan for my life is the best one.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 1. Do not fear

Image
Over the summer something unusual happened. One Sunday morning someone in our congregation came up for prayer. I happened to be on the prayer team so asked what is was she'd like prayer for and she said she was about to go on holiday and was really terrified, highly anxious, super stressed. I asked why. She said she just got really scared when doing anything out of the ordinary. She then said she had always ' suffered from anxiety'. When she said that, something triggered in me and I got really cross. Not cross with her. Cross with the lies which were causing her to be full of fear all the time about everything. I had a chat with her about fear, I prayed with her. She stood listening open-mouthed and said she had never heard anyone explain fear like that. She went off on holiday and actually messaged me half way through to tell me she was having a great time. Two weeks later I was at Summer Madness. Youth festival with 2,000 teenagers from every sort of church background ca...
Read more

Day 8 a testimony

Image
Im a very blessed person because I was brought up in an entirely fear-free family. My parents both had their fare share of troubles and difficulties. They lost a baby before I was born. They had an unhappy marriage and divorced when I was 4. They both remarried and both ran small businesses with all the stresses and hard work that that entails. They were both widowed relatively young. There was plenty of real life struggle as I was growing up. But..... I can honestly say that as a child I was never aware of an environment of anxiety, worry, fear. My parents talked about things as my brother and I got older and we knew the reality of some of the difficult ' life stuff'. But neither of my parents were fearful. Im not sure why. They were both born during the war years and maybe that generation were purposefully and strongly protected from the fears that the war must have engendered. They were most likely brought up being sheltered from truly scary things. And therefor...
Read more

Day 19 The only fear

Image
  Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,   15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.  Hebrews 2 I apologise that this Advent Blog has been so serious.  When I started out this year I didnt think Id still be writing about fear on day 19.  But there is so much to talk about! This might be the last day and maybe the last few will be a bit more lighthearted. We shall see. Anyhow, what fear really all boils down to in all of its manifestations is the fear of death.  When you peel back the facade of every fear and dig down into what its all about it comes back to this.  The reason Adam and Eve had absolutely no fear in the Garden of Eden was because there was no death. Hebrews tells us that we are all, for all of our lives, held in slavery by the fear of death. This is why we can live free...
Read more