Sermon Illustrations on Fear

Attack of the Killer Rabbits

Faith in God's presence dispels irrational fears that destroy peace and confidence.

A counselor at church camp told of his experience with a nine-year-old boy who started to cry when they turned out the cabin lights the first night. "Was he afraid of the dark?" the counselor asked. "No," the boy replied; "he just didn't want to be attacked by the 'killer rabbits.'" Some older kids at home had told him that there were "killer rabbits" who would come out at night and attack the campers. Jesus was constantly reassuring the disciples with the words, "Fear not." Their fears betrayed their lack of faith. When one traces these words and their usage throughout the Bible, it seems that one of man's constant needs is to be reassured of the presence and comfort of God almighty. Christians can draw on this presence to find comfort and destroy their fears. Watch out for "killer rabbits!" They can destroy your peace of mind at camp and throughout life. A Story of Faith Pete had become lost in the desert and had been chasing mirages. He thought to himself, I'll follow this last one. It was a deserted town with a well in the very center. His mouth parched from the intense heat, he ran to the well with his last ounce of energy. He vigorously pumped the handle only to find that no water came forth. Then, he looked up to a note nailed to the post. It instructed its readers to "look behind the rock where a five-gallon container of water will be found" and warned against drinking or using it for anything besides priming the pump. Every ounce was needed, and not even a drop could be spared, the note emphasized. "After pouring the water down the pump, pump the handle vigorously and all the water you desire will come forth," the note said. One last instruction was to please fill the water can and place it behind the rock for the next weary soul who might happen to come along. How hard it is for people to give up a "sure thing" for something they cannot see at the time. Pete had a sure thing in the bucket of water and yet was instructed to pour it "all" down the pump.

Facing Fear

1 John 4:18

Fear can be paralyzing and harmful, unlike temporary fears experienced in entertainment.

As a child it was fun to watch the movies about the swamp monster that ate an entire city, or the space alien that tried to conquer New York or Tokyo. These movies were fun because you could be afraid for an hour or so, and then it was all over. The monster was killed; the aliens were fought off. It is not fun to be afraid in the "real" sense. Fear is that emotion that is so well known. It is produced by a sense of danger, impending calamity or some dire emergency, or even by walking into a dentist's office. It is a powerful emotion that can damage both the physical body and the personality. Fear can even block the thought processes. John Madden, of CBS Sports crisscrosses the country many times each fall in a customized bus because he is afraid of flying. A few years ago, one first-round draft choice in the NBA quickly ended his career with an unconditional release by his team because of his paralyzing fear of flying. Several years ago, a televised circus act with Bengal tigers was broadcast live. The tiger trainer went into the cage with several tigers to do a routine performance. The door was locked behind him. The spotlights highlighted the cage, the television cameras moved in close, and the audience watched in suspense as the trainer put the tigers through their act. However, in the middle of the performance, the lights went out! For 20 or 30 seconds the trainer was locked in a dark cage with Bengal tigers, a whip and a chair. The tigers could see the trainer, but he could not see them! After the event was over, in an interview, the trainer was asked how he felt about his situation in the cage. He first admitted to the chilling fear of the situation, but he pointed out that the tigers did not know that he could not see them. He said, "I just kept cracking my whip and talking to them until the lights came on. They never knew I could not see them as well as they could see me." This story says something about many fears. Face them and go on doing the best you can. As a child you may have had a fear of the dark. As an adult you may fear failure or rejection, the future, some potential health crisis, or of your death or the death of a loved one. The Bible has the answer for our fears. John wrote: "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear...." (1 John 4:18). Christ's love is the perfect defense against the physical and mental effects of fear. Paul said it this way; "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Philippians 4:13). The phrase "fear not" is found at least 365 times in various forms throughout the Bible. The Hebrews writer says, "that we may confidently say, 'The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid....'" One writer said it this way: "The greatness of our fears shows us the littleness of our faith." We need to pray about our fears and our faith, and turn to the Lord for help to face our fears. The Fear of Risk Henry Fairlie of the Washington Post, writing in the Tulsa World, states that the "fear of risk is killing the American Spirit." He points out our over-reaction to Three Mile Island and the engine on one DC-10. He believes that the nation that won't build a dam because of a small snail darter, or that will delay a carriage to the stars because it might fall like Skylab is in deep trouble. He asked, "Was the Mayflower seaworthy?" He contends that a group of Americans today would not have the heart to cross the Rockies as our forefathers did years ago. It would be too risky! There is a lesson here for the church of our Lord. Many good works go wanting for fear of the risk involved. Some Christians will not become soul winners because of the risk of being hurt. Others have never given liberally to God because of fear of poverty. Elders refuse to become involved in domestic and world evangelism because they might not succeed. Another won't defend truth for the same reason. No doubt but what the "fear of risk" has killed many good programs in the church. There is no "fear of risk" for Christ. He knew that He came into the world to die for all. He asked his followers to deny themselves daily and take up their crosses and walk! There will always be some perils, but think of the risk if we don't! The Known or the Unknown Several generations ago, during one of the most turbulent of the desert wars in the Middle East, a spy was captured and sentenced to death by a general of the Persian army. The general, a man of intelligence and compassion, had adopted a strange and unusual custom in such cases. He permitted the condemned person to make a choice. The prisoner could either face a firing squad or pass through the Black Door. As the moment of the execution drew near, the general ordered the spy to be brought before him for a short, final interview, the primary purpose of which was to receive the answer of the doomed man to the query: "What shall it be-the firing squad or the Black Door?" This was not an easy decision, and the prisoner hesitated, but soon made it known that he much preferred the firing squad to the unknown horrors that might await him behind the ominous and mysterious door. Not long thereafter, a volley of shots in the courtyard announced that the grim sentence had been fulfilled. The general, staring at his boots, turned to his aide and said, "You see how it is with men; they will always prefer the known to the unknown. It is characteristic of people to be afraid of the undefined. Yet I gave him his choice." "What lies beyond the Black Door?" asked the aide. "Freedom," replied the general, "and I've known only a few brave enough to take it." The story illustrates the situation many people face each day-a choice between the known and the unknown. Few have the courage to come alive, to stop being engulfed in a sea of mediocrity-humbled and dulled by failure to recognize their own potential. They lack the fortitude to stop living their lives in a mentally-chloroformed condition in that ignoble mass of humanity... the uncommitted. The choice is yours (Philippians 4:13). "By grace ye are saved through faith" (Ephesians 4:28). "We live by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). From Whom Are You Running? Christian Clippings (Sept. 1993, pp. 14f) had this poignant example of a common human response: "Sometime ago, newspapers carried the story of a young fellow named William, who was a fugitive from the police. The teenager had run away with his girlfriend because the parents had been trying to break them up. What William didn't know was that an ailment he had been seeing the doctor about was diagnosed, just after his disappearance, as cancer. "Now, here was William, doing his best to elude the police, lest he lose his love, while they were doing their best to find him, lest he lose his life. He thought they were after him to punish him; they were really after him to save him. William is representative of every man, whose guilt tells him God is after him to straightjacket him in this life and torture him forever."

Headed Toward the Sun (Son)

John 8:12

Christ as the Light helps believers overcome fear and walk in spiritual light.

Alexander the Great was regent of Macedonia at the age of 16, a victorious general at 18, king at 20-and then he died a drunkard before he was 33, having conquered the then-known world. His father was Philip of Macedon, also a military genius, who invented the famous "Greek phalanx." While Alexander was still in his early teens, Philonicus the Thessalonian offered to sell Alexander's father, Philip, his horse, Bucephalus, a trained, but vicious horse. Philip took his son along to see the horse go through his paces, but the stallion proved so unmanageable that none of the men could even mount him. Alexander noticed that he seemed to be afraid of his own shadow, so he quieted the horse by turning his head toward the sun! Then Alexander mounted the horse, and let him run freely for a while. Soon, by keeping him headed toward the sun, he got him under control. Millions today are "afraid of their own shadow," the "shadow" of their evil deeds, the haunting "shadow" of their own guilty conscience and the "shadow" of hundreds of fears and failures. But let some faithful Christian point them to Christ, and their shadows immediately fall behind them, for Christ is "the Light of the world" (John 8:12), and all who follow HIM "shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The closer one walks to Him the more light he has; and the farther one gets from Christ, the deeper are the shadows. And he who is so foolish as to walk away from Christ, in unbelief, walks ever deeper into the shadows that will eventually plunge him into the eternal darkness.

Cowardice, Danger of

Cowardice invites attack because weakness is exploited by others.

When the passengers gallop by as if fear made them speedy, the ear follows them with an open mouth. Let them walk by in confident neglect, and the dog will not stir at all. It is a weakness that every creature takes advantage of.

— J. Beaumont

Evil, Anticipating

Anticipating future troubles can cause more fear than facing present difficulties.

Most people can bear one day's evil. The thing that breaks men down is the trying to bear on one day the evil of two days, twenty days, a hundred days. You may remember the story of Miss Jane Taylor, of a certain clock. The pendulum of that clock began to calculate how often it would have to swing backwards and forwards in the week and in the month to come; then, working still further into futurity, it calculated, by a pretty hard exercise of mental arithmetic, how often it would have to swing in a year; and it got so frightened at the awful, prospect, that it determined at once to stop. There was something crushing in that long lookout. The pendulum was not afraid of a hundred beats, or of a thousand; but the prospect of millions terrified it.

— Country Parson

Fear, Anxious

Unnecessary fears often stem from miscalculations, causing needless anxiety and misery.

It is curious to think how often these needless fears, which cause so much unnecessary anxiety and misery, are the result of pure miscalculation; and this miscalculation not made in a hurry, but deliberately. I have a friend who told me this. When he was married, he had exactly five hundred pounds a year, and no means of adding to that income. So, as he could not increase his income, his business was to keep down his expenditure below it. But neither he nor his wife knew much about household management, and he was a good deal victimized by his servants. After doing all he could to economize he found, at the end of the third month of his financial year, that he had spent exactly one hundred and twenty-five pounds. Four times one hundred and twenty-five pounds he calculated, made six hundred pounds a year; which was just one hundred more than he had got. So the debtor's prison appeared to loom in view or some total change in his mode of life, which it seemed almost impossible for him to make without very painful circumstances: and he weeks the thought almost drove him distracted. Day and night: it never was absent. At length one day, brooding over his prospects, he suddenly discovered that four times one hundred and twenty-five made just five hundred, an not six hundred: so that all his fears were groundless. He was relieved, he told me; but somehow his heart had been so burdened and sunk by those anxious weeks; that, though the cause of anxiety was removed, it was a long time before it seemed to recover its spring.

— Boyd

Fear, in Brave Men

Even brave men fear small dangers while facing greater ones without fear.

One of the bravest and best generals that Europe ever produced said that he never could snuff a candle with his fingers without suffering from the fear of being burned. He was not afraid on the battle-field, but he was afraid of scorching his fingers. There was a man who never saw a thunder-cloud without trembling lest he should be struck with lightning; and yet, when he came to the end of life, he had no fear of death, but welcomed it as he would rest from a tiresome journey. Another, who would faint at the sight of blood, was as cheerful in view of immediate dissolution as though he had been invited to a party, and was hastening to go. A strong man, who had braved dangers upon the land and sea, was absolutely afraid of being alone in the dark. He had no fear of any thing he could see, but a mortal dread of the unseen.

Fear, and Confidence

A Christian's confidence in God's voice overcomes fear, influencing others toward faith.

St. Ambrose says that a Christian wife was on a journey with her heathen husband, when a terrific thunder-storm arose, which overwhelmed the man with terror. His wife asked the cause. He replied, "Are not you afraid?" She answered, "No, not at all: for I know that it is the voice of my heavenly Father; and shall a child be afraid of a father's voice?" The husband saw that his wife had what he had not; and this led him to the adoption of Christianity.

Fear, Cowardly

Facing fears directly often reveals them to be less frightening than imagined.

The very worst thing you can do is to lock the closet door when you think probably there is a skeleton within. Fling it wide open; search with a paraffine lamp into every corner. A hundred to one, there is no skeleton there at all. But from youth to age we must be battling with the dastardly tendency to walk away from the white donkey in the shadow, which we ought to walk up to. I have seen a little child, who had cut her finger, entreat that it might just be tied up, without ever being looked at: she was afraid to look at it. But when it was looked at, and washed and sorted, she saw how little a thing it was for all the blood that came from it; and about nine-tenths of her fear fled away. Boyd.

Fear, Care for

Confidence in God's control calms fear amid life's storms.

A ship was on her voyage for a southern port, when a fearful storm burst upon her, filling all hearts with fear. A sailor had his little boy on board with him. Seeing his confidence, a passenger asked him, "Don't you think the bark will be lost, and all be drowned?"—"Oh, no!" he answered: "I have just been out on deck; and I know we are all safe, for father's at the wheel."

Fear, Effects of

Fear can either motivate action or paralyze and prevent movement.

Fear sometimes adds wings to the heels, and sometimes nails them to the ground, and fetters them from moving. Montaigne.

Fear, Misconception of

From God's perspective, earthly troubles appear trivial and less frightening.

He that stands below, and looks to the top of St. Paul's, or any other high place, thinks the people upon the height but children, while those below are giants. If he stands on the height, and looks down, the case is reversed. So it is with men. Their troubles and worldly interests seem great while grovelling among them; but let them get up where God resides, and how trivial will all appear!

Fear, Ridiculousness of

Seeing others’ excessive fears can help us overcome our own unreasonable anxieties.

My friend Jones told me, that, after several months of extremely hard headwork, which had lowered his nervous system, he found himself getting into a way of vaguely dreading what might come next, and often received his letters in the morning with many anticipations of evil. But, happily, a friend came to visit him who carried all this about a hundred degrees farther; who had come through all his life expecting at least an earthquake daily, if not the end of the world. And Jones was set right. In the words of Wordsworth, "He looked upon him, and was calmed and cheered." Jones saw how like a fool his friend seemed, and there came a healthy re-action; and he opened his letterbox bravely every morning, and was all right again. Yes: let us see the Helot drunk, and it will teach us to keep sober. My friend Gray told me, that, for some little space, he felt a growing tendency to scrubbing in money matters; but, having witnessed pinching and paring (without the least need for them) carried to a transcendent degree by some one else, the very name of economy was made to stink in his nostrils; and he felt a mad desire to pitch half-crowns about the streets wherever he went. In this case the re-action went too far; but, in a week or two, Gray came back to the middle course, which is the safest and best.

— Boyd

Fear, Unreasonable

Fear can be irrational, like a tiger terrified of a harmless mouse.

A royal Bengal tiger, kept at the Residency, Calcutta, exhibited the greatest terror at the sight of a mouse. If the mouse moved about, the tiger ran or sprang away, as if in dread of destruction. A fall of his foot would have crushed his enemy; but his fear made him blind to the truth.

Fear, Use of

Fear is a God-given signal to alert and protect us from danger.

Many men affect to despise fear, and, in preaching, resent any appeal to it; but not to fear where there is occasion is as great a weakness as to fear unduly, without reason. God planted fear in the soul as truly as he planted hope or courage. Fear is a kind of hell, or gong, which rings the mind into quick life and avoidance upon the approach of danger: it is the soul's signal for rallying.

— Beecher

Infidelity, Influence of

Voltaire feared discussing atheism openly, showing hidden insecurity of infidels.

One day when D'Alembert and Condorcet were dining with Voltaire, they proposed to converse of atheism; but Voltaire stopped them at once. "Wait," said he, "till my servants have withdrawn: I do not wish to have my throat cut to-night."

Mammon, Anxiety of

A king loses his riches and life by fearing to act boldly to save his treasure.

A king of Cyprus made himself so rich, that he became a tempting spoil; and, rather than lose his treasures, he embarked them in perforated ships, but, wanting courage to draw the plugs, ventured back to land, and lost both his money and his life. Dr. J. Hamilton.

Opinions, Vaccillating

Indecision in faith is like hesitation before danger with consequences.

Those who "halt between two opinions," in the matter of religion, are like travellers who halt in indecision at cross-roads, with tempest and the night hurrying up behind them; like a railway pointsman, who hesitates which way to move the points whilst a train is rapidly approaching; like a pilot, who doubts what to do with the helm when the ship is driving before the wind through a dangerous channel.

— Union Magazine

Riches, Torment of

Excessive security for riches reveals fear and torment over wealth.

A certain duke has a passion for costly diamonds. His house resembles a castle rather than a mansion, and is surrounded with a lofty wall, over which no one can climb without giving alarm. His treasure is kept in a safe let in the wall of his bedroom, so that it cannot be reached without first waking or murdering the owner: the safe is so constructed, that it cannot be forced without discharging four guns, and setting an alarm bell a-ringing in every room. His bedroom, like a prisoner's cell, has but one small window; and the bolt and lock of the massive door are of the stoutest iron. In addition to these precautions, a case containing twelve loaded revolvers stands by the side of his bed. Might we not inscribe over it, "Diamonds are my portion: therefore do I fear"?

— Rev. R. Gray

Wealth, Slave of

Great wealth can enslave a person through fear and the need for security.

The Duke of Brunswick, whose diamonds are valued at two million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, dares not leave Paris at any period of the year: his diamonds keep him chained there. He dares not sleep away a single night. Then he lives in a house constructed not so much for comfort as security. It is burglar-proof, surrounded on every side by a high wall: the wall itself is surmounted by a lofty iron railing defended by innumerable sharp spear-heads, which are so contrived, that, if any person touches one of them, a chime of bells begins instantly to ring an alarm: this iron railing cost him £2,821. He keeps his diamonds in a thick wall: his bed is placed against it, that no burglar may break into it without killing, or at least waking him, and that he may amuse himself without leaving his bed. The safe is lined with granite and with iron: if it is opened by violence, a discharge of fire-arms, which will inevitably kill the burglar, takes place; and, at the same time, a chime of bells in every room in the house is set ringing. He has but one window in his bedroom; the sash of the stoutest iron, and cannot be entered unless one be master of the secret combination of the lock. A case of a dozen six-barelled revolvers, loaded and capped, lies upon a table within reach of his bed. Jeffers.

Fear, expression of doubt

Genesis 33

Fear shows doubt in God’s promises, weakening confidence against enemies.

Jacob fears Esau. Had he believed God's promise concerning himself, would not have anticipated destruction. Fear is ingenious. If we have power with God, will have power with man

THE TERROR BY NIGHT

Fear can be real but often is mistaken; courage requires discernment, not just bravery.

In some parts of Canada, where the country is still thinly settled by people, wild animals are quite numerous. In one of these communities there once lived a boy who was in the village late one night. He had been at the village-store, and had heard the men talking about a wildcat that had been seen in that neighbourhood a short time before. The boy was not a coward, but when he started for his home, three miles away, in the country, he was nervous. Nothing happened, however, until he was climbing over a set of bars at the end of a lane leading through a piece of woods near his home. Then he heard the bushes moving and twigs crackling under the feet of some animal the other side of the lane-fence. He thought of the wildcat. He jumped to the ground, picked up a heavy stick he had seen under a tree on his way through that day and listened. Nearer and nearer came the rustling of the bushes, and every little while he could hear an animal sniff the air. Finally it came to the fence, clambered up opposite him. The boy raised his club and waited, and when the animal jumped down beside him, its eyes shining in the darkness, he struck with all his might. Off the beast went into the darkness. All was silence again, and the boy stood listening and trembling. Then from the top of a nearby hill he heard a dog howl with pain. He found, next morning, that it was only a neighbour's dog that had frightened him so. That boy is not the only one who has seen things mistakenly, just because he was afraid. If you are dreading something, you will think that everything that happens brings the thing you dread. Usually nothing happens at all. The trouble was only in the person's mind, just as that wildcat was in the boy's mind, and so every noise he could not explain was a wildcat. I am sure David must have known something about that fear when, as a boy, he watched his sheep out on the lonely hills at night. But David learned that there was One who was able to protect him by night as well as by day. It was God. And so he wrote of God: "He that keepeth thee will not slumber. God is thy keeper. God is thy shade upon thy right hand. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day; for the pestilence that walketh in darkness.... It shall not come nigh thee." Let us remember that no real harm can come to us unless it comes from within ourselves. God is our protector. In His love we can trust by day, and in His care we can lay us down to sleep at night without a fear.

Anticipation

Peter the Great's irrational fear of water illustrates deep-seated human antipathies and fears.

See NATURE’S ANTIDOTE.

ANTIPATHIES, INSTINCTIVE

It would be an excellent accomplishment if an abhorrence of moral evils could be bred in men similar to the instinctive antipathies described in this extract:

It seems absolutely incredible that Peter the Great, the father of the Russian navy, should shudder at the sight of water, whether running or still, yet so it was, especially when alone. His palace gardens, beautiful as they were, he never entered, because the river Mosera flowed through them. His coachman had orders to avoid all roads which led past streams, and if compelled to cross a brook or bridge, the great emperor would sit with closed windows, in a cold perspiration. Another monarch, James I, the English Solomon, as he liked to be called, had many antipathies, chiefly tobacco, ling, and pork. He never overcame his inability to look at a drawn sword, and it is said that on one occasion when giving the accolade, the king turned his face aside, nearly wounding the new-made knight. Henry III of France had so great a dislike for cats that he fainted at the sight of one. We suppose that in this case the cat had to waive his proverbial prerogative, and could not look at a king. This will seem as absurd, as extraordinary to lady lovers of that much-petted animal, but what are we to say of the Countess of Lamballe, of unhappy history, to whom a violet was a thing of horror? Even this is not without its precedent, for it is on record that Vincent, the painter, was seized with vertigo and swooned at the smell of roses. Scaliger states that one of his relations was made ill at the sight of a lily, and he himself would turn pale at the sight of watercresses, and could never drink milk. Charles Kingsley, naturalist as he was to the core, had a great horror of spiders, and in “Glaucus,” after saying that every one seems to have his antipathic animal, continues: “I know one (himself), bred from his childhood to zoology by land and sea, and bold in asserting and honest in feeling that all, without exception, is beautiful, who yet can not after handling and petting and examining all day long, every uncouth and venomous beast, avoid a paroxysm of horror at the sight of the common house-spider.” (Text.)--_Cassell’s Family Magazine._

Anticipation

A brave officer's fear of cats shows even the strongest have unexpected vulnerabilities.

* * * * *

A well-known officer of Her Majesty’s army, who has proved his strength and courage in more than one campaign, turns pale at the sight of a cat. On one occasion, when asked out to dinner, his host, who was rather skeptical as to the reality of this feeling, concealed a cat in an ottoman in the dining-room. Dinner was announced and commenced, but his guest was evidently ill at ease; and at length declared his inability to go on eating, as he was sure there was a cat in the room. An apparently thorough but unavailing search was made; but his visitor was so completely upset that the host, with many apologies for his experiment, “let the cat out of the bag,” and out of the ottoman at the same time.--_Cassell’s Family Magazine._

Apprehension, Lincoln’S

Lincoln felt deserted and fearful at war's outbreak, expecting attack that never came.

In Carl Schurtz’ war reminiscences, we find the following, showing the apprehension felt by Lincoln at the outbreak of the war:

One afternoon, after he [President Lincoln] had issued his call for troops, he sat alone in his room, and a feeling came over him as if he were utterly deserted and helpless. He thought any moderately strong body of Secessionist troops, if there were any in the neighborhood, might come over the “long bridge” across the Potomac, and just take him and the members of the Cabinet--the whole lot of them. Then he suddenly heard a sound like the boom of a cannon. “There they are!” he said to himself. He expected every moment that somebody would rush in with the report of an attack. But the White House attendants, whom he interrogated, had heard nothing. Nobody came, and all remained still. Then he thought he would look after the thing himself. So he walked out, and walked and walked until he got to the arsenal. There he found the doors all open, and not a soul to guard them. Anybody might have gone in and helped himself to the arms. There was perfect solitude and stillness all around. Then he walked back to the White House without noticing the slightest sign of disturbance. He met a few persons on the way, some of whom he asked whether they had not heard something like the boom of a cannon. Nobody had heard anything, and so he supposed it must have been a freak of his imagination. It is probable that at least a guard was sent to the arsenal that evening. (Text.)

Blunder, A

A preacher's slip of the tongue shows humility and seriousness despite fear of embarrassment.

This incident is told by Dr. R. F. Horton in the _Christian Endeavor World_:

I had been addressing a large midday congregation in Leeds, and a deep seriousness pervaded the atmosphere. The closing hymn appointed began, “Sin-sick and Sorrow-laden”; and by some inconceivable oddity of my own mind I gave it out, quite deliberately and distinctly, “Seasick and Sorrow-laden.” I perceived what I had done in a second. I literally trembled, for it was impossible to recall the slip without calling attention to it. I feared that there would be an awful titter, or even an explosion of laughter. Wonderful to say, it was as if no one but myself noticed the blunder, and I was awed into gravity, not only by the occasion, but by my fear of what might happen.

Coincidence, Remarkable

Fear and guilt can drive a man to flee after accidentally doing harm.

Shortly after Robert Louis Stevenson published his curious psychological story of transformation, a friend of mine, called Mr. Hyde, was in the north of London, and being anxious to get to a railway station, he took what he thought was a short cut, lost his way and found himself in a network of mean, evil-looking streets. Feeling rather nervous he was walking extremely fast, when suddenly out of an archway ran a child right between his legs. The child fell on the pavement, he tript over it, and trampled upon it. Being, of course, very much frightened and not a little hurt, it began to scream, and in a few seconds the whole street was full of rough people who kept pouring out of the houses like ants. They surrounded him and asked him his name. He was just about to give it, when he suddenly remembered the opening incident of Mr. Stevenson’s story. He was so filled with horror at having realized in his own person that terrible scene, and at having done accidentally what the Mr. Hyde of fiction had done with deliberate intent, that he ran away as fast as he could go. He was, however, very closely followed, and he finally took refuge in a surgery, the door of which happened to be open, where he explained to a young man, apparently an assistant, who happened to be there, exactly what had occurred. The crowd was induced to go away on his giving them a small sum of money, and as soon as the coast was clear he left. As he passed out, the name on the brass door-plate of the surgery caught his eye. It was “Mr. Jekyll.”--_Nineteenth Century._

Confidence, Lack Of

Failure often stems from a lack of belief in one's own ability to succeed.

Admiral Dupont was once explaining to Farragut the reason why he failed to enter Charlestown harbor with his fleet of iron-clads. He gave this reason and that reason and the other reason; and Farragut remained silent until he had got through, and then said, “Ah, Dupont, there was one more reason.” “What is that?” “You didn’t believe you could do it.”

Difficulties, Dispersing

Fears often vanish when faced boldly, becoming smaller and harmless like a child.

An old man once said: “I have had a long life full of troubles; most of them never happened.” So most of the giants in the way, if we do not fear them, turn out as in this dream related by the Rev. S. Benson Phillips:

When I first heard the call to the ministry I was about twelve years old. From that time until I was twenty-four years old, it was a question in my mind as to whether I was equal to the responsibilities and requirements of this holy calling. It was one night, after I had been thinking of these things, that I had the following dream: I thought that I was camping by the roadside, and had retired for the night. A great giant stood by my bedside. He offered to do me no harm, but simply stood by my bed. I begged him to go away. This he would not do until I arose and prepared to battle with him. Seeing my intention, he began to walk slowly away. I followed him. To my delight, he became smaller and smaller until he was nothing but a little boy, and unable to do me any harm.

Hopeless Fear

Hopeless fear paralyzes and hastens defeat, while courage prolongs life.

Is there not an Eastern apologue which tells how the Angel of Pestilence was questioned as to the ten thousand victims he had slain? And did he not answer, “Nay, Lord, I took but a thousand; the rest were slain by my friend Panic.” How many, too, have sunk into the deep waters of the black river and been floated on to the ocean of eternity, for very paralysis of hope when the evil hour was upon them and they had just wetted their feet on the brink! They could, and they would have stept back to the solid shore; but they had no courage for the attempt, no energy to strike out to the land. The waters closed over their bowed head, and they sobbed away their breath in the very supineness of terror, the very lethargy of hopeless fear. Death is like everything else--a foe to be fought, a wild beast to be kept at bay. They who contend with most spirit live the greater number of days. The will to live and the determination not to die make the most efficacious antidote against the poison of the “lethal dart.” The hopelessness of fear is that poison itself.--E. LYNN LINTON--_The Forum_.

Imagination

Fear and imagination can cause fatal consequences even without physical harm.

See DREAMS; PANIC THROUGH FEAR.

IMAGINATION CAUSING DEATH

The _British and Colonial Druggist_ discust the death of a young woman at Hackney under circumstances in which a certain insect powder largely figured. As the powder appeared by Dr. Tidy’s experiment to be perfectly harmless, the suggestion was not unnaturally made that the deceased, who was possibly of a hysterical, highly imaginative turn of mind, took the powder in the full belief that by its means her death might be accomplished. The writer of the article, we think wrongly, brings forward two remarkable instances of what may be regarded as practical jokes with melancholy terminations. In the case of the convict delivered up to the scientist for the purpose of a psychological experiment (the man was strapped to a table and blindfolded, ostensibly to be bled to death; a siphon containing water was placed near his head and the fluid was allowed to trickle audibly into a vessel below it, at the same time that a trifling scratch with a needle was inflicted on the culprit’s neck; it is said that death occurred at the end of six minutes), fear must have played no inconsiderable share in the fatal result, and we do not know whether all the vital organs were in a sound condition, tho they were presumably so. The old story of the case of a college porter is also one in point. The students entrapt him into a room at night, a mock inquiry was held, and the punishment of death by decapitation decreed for his want of consideration to the students. It is small wonder that, under the dominion of fear and belief in the earnestness of his tormentors, the sight of an ax and a block, with subsequent blindfolding and necessary genuflexion, a smart rap with a wet towel on the back of his neck should have been followed by the picking up of a corpse.--_Lancet._

Panic Through Fear

Panic causes confusion and danger, showing the destructive power of fear without trust in God.

The New York _Evening Post_ thus describes the condition of panic on our ships at the beginning of the Spanish War:

Almost any officer who served in the fleet before Santiago could relate not one, but a great many incidents that occurred where the men of our ships would have slaughtered each other if the good little angel that sits up aloft (and our exceedingly bad marksmanship at that time) had not protected us from the mistakes (incomprehensible to landsmen) which caused our ships to fire at each other, at colliers, dispatch-boats, torpedo-boats, and at nothing at all--and all this in the clear atmosphere of the tropical seas.

Such was the effect of the long, nervous tension that thousands of shots were fired at pure fantoms of the imagination. The broadsides of powerful battleships repeatedly burst into a furious cannonade that was arrested only with the complete annihilation of the supposed enemy. For one of our ships to approach the fleet at night was to run a grave risk. The sea was alive with Spanish torpedo-boats. Signals, lights, etc., were misunderstood or disregarded. The enemy might have obtained possession of them and displayed them for our confusion. There were many narrow escapes. Several of our vessels were struck by shells, but the luck that followed us throughout the war prevented a disaster. I could mention the names of officers who have never been able to comb their hair down flat since the particular night on which they came within an ace of sinking a friend--with whom they have never since ceased to exchange congratulatory drinks. (Text.)--New York _Evening Post_.

Timidity

Timidity can hinder usefulness in God's kingdom despite good intentions.

May T. McKean, in _Zion’s Advocate_, reports an acquaintance as saying to her:

I wish I could say the thoughts that come to me, but I could no more speak in a meeting than I could fly. I could not preside at even the smallest meeting. Indeed, I can scarcely make a motion in our own little circle. The sound of my own voice frightens me; it sounds queer and hollow and far off, and I forget everything I had in mind before. But, honestly, I believe I could be a more useful woman in Christ’s kingdom if I were not so timid. I guess I did not begin right. I was always afraid I would not say or do the right thing, and now I can not do anything. (Text.)

Trouble, Borrowed

Worrying about future troubles wastes courage; face only the challenges you must cross.

Dr. S. B. Dunn gives some good advice in this bit of verse:

The heart too often hath quailed with dread, And quite its courage lost, By casting its glance too far ahead For the bridge that never was crossed.

The toughest fight, the bitterest dregs, The stormiest sea that tossed, Was the passage-at-arms--no, the passage-at-legs, Of the bridge that never was crossed.

A wind that withers wherever it goes, And biting as winter frost; Is the icy blast that constantly blows From the bridge that never was crossed.

What folly for mortals to travel that way, As many have found to their cost-- To tempt the terrors by night or by day Of the bridge that never was crossed.

The adage is old and worn a bit, But worthy of being embossed-- Never cross a bridge till you come to it

— The bridge that must be crossed

Upward Look

Many fears come from not looking up to God and seeing what is truly above us.

* * * * *

Are not most of life’s fears due to the fact that we do not consider enough what is above us? The remedy is to look up.

When a goose goes under an arch she ducks her head; that is not because there is not space for her, but because she thinks there is not, and that is because she is a goose. Perhaps she does not see very clearly what is above her.--BOLTON HALL, “A Little Land and a Living.”

Amy Carmichael On Soft-Selling the Gospel

John 5:41

Amy Carmichael, missionary to India, on Christians who are fearful and so soft-sell the gospel:

"If I am afraid to speak the truth because I might lose

someone's love, or am concerned someone should say,

"You do not understand",

Or because I fear to lose my reputation for kindness;

If I put my own good name before the other's highest good,

then I know nothing of Calvary love.

If I am content to heal a hurt slightly, saying peace,

peace, where there is no peace;

If I forget the poignant words, "Let love be without

hypocrisy" and blunt the edge of truth,

speaking not right things but smooth things,

Then I know nothing of Calvary love.

An Eye On the Cradle

Luke 12:22

Jesus tells us not to worry, but there are plenty of things to worry about. Christians don't worry because:

1. For believers, the worst that can happen is already past. Sin is judged.

2. For believers, however dark it may be, the present has a brighter side.

3. For believers, the best that will happen lies in the future.

If I Could Do It, You Can Too!

Job 22:30

I began life, literally, with nothing. Given up as an infant by my biological mother, an unmarried young woman from the small town of Moose Jaw in Saskatchewan, Canada, I was adopted by a poor, middle-aged couple, John and Mary Linkletter.

My adoptive father was one of the warmest men I've ever known, but he had absolutely no ability as a businessman. A part-time evangelical preacher, he also tried selling insurance, running a small general store and making shoes, all rather unsuccessfully. Eventually we found ourselves living in a charity home run by a local church in San Diego. Then Dad Linkletter felt called by God to become a full-time preacher, and we had even less money. And what we did have was usually shared with whatever neighborhood derelict happened to be looking for a meal.

I graduated from high school early and hit the road as a hobo at the tender age of 16 with the idea of finding my fortune. One of the first things I found, however, was the wrong end of a pistol: my traveling companion and I were held up by a couple of toughs who found us sleeping in a boxcar.

"Put your hands straight out and lie flat!" one of the men ordered. "If this match goes out and I hear anything more I'll shoot." As they searched our pockets and felt around our middles, I wondered if money was all they wanted. I was frightened because I had heard stories of older hobos sexually attacking young boys. Just then, the match went out ... and was hastily relit. We did not move! The thieves found $1.20 on me but missed $10.00 I had sewn into my coat lining. They also took two dollars from my friend, Denver Fox.

The match went out again and I could tell by their hesitation that they were undecided about something. As Denver and I lay there, inches apart in the darkness, I heard the hammer of the pistol click back and a cold chill ran down my back. I knew they were considering killing us. There was little risk for them. The rain hammering down on the outside of the boxcar would drown out any noise. Frozen with terror, I thought of my father and how he would have prayed for me had he known. Suddenly fear left me and peace and calm returned. As if in response to my own restored self-assurance, they moved back toward us. Then I could feel one of the men push something against my arm.

"Here's your thirty cents," he said. "Breakfast money."

Today I can look back on 45 years as a star of two of the longest-running shows in broadcasting history; I can reflect on the success I've had as a businessman, author, and lecturer; and I can be proud of my wonderful family life - 58 years with the same wife, five children, seven grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. I mention this not to be boastful but to encourage others who are at the lower rung of the economic ladder. Keep in mind where I started and remember, if I could do it, you can, too! Yes - you can!

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By Art Linkletter

from Chicken Soup for the Soul

Are We Afraid of the Future?

John 14:17

Litigation is making American business afraid to try risky ventures. But without them we will not succeed in the future. Many drugs and processes are kept from Americans because of a litigious system. Society has actually ended up with more risk.

*

How Much Can God Forgive?

Jesus forgives all past, present and future sin. God's wrath cannot touch believers.

Many years ago, a father and his daughter were walking through the grass on the Canadian prairie. In the distance, they saw a prairie fire; they realized it eventually would engulf them. The father knew there was only one way of escape: they would quickly begin a fire right where they were and burn a large patch of grass.

When the huge fire drew near, they then would stand on the section that had already burned. When the fire approached them, the girl was terrified by the raging flames. But her father assured her, "The flames can't get to us. We are standing where the fire has already been!"

Are you afraid of God's judgment? If you have trusted Christ as Savior, you can never come under His wrath. When you depend on Him, you are secure; you are where the wrath of God already has been.

[see also #2074, #4430, #5905 for same idea]

#729

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Living Without Fear

John 14:27

Gary Haugen works with a ministry that seeks to bring legal justice to cases of injustice in parts of the world with weak or corrupt legal systems. His interest in this ministry began when he graduated from Harvard in 1985 and traveled to South Africa. While there he worked with the National Initiative for Reconciliation, a church-based effort aimed at ending apartheid.

Three days after Haugen arrived in a black township, the South African regime declared martial law. He saw priests locked up, blacks beaten. Security forces detained him for attending a multiracial church service without permission.

The response of the Christian South Africans made a big impression on Haugen:

“What struck me was that in a country just utterly caged by fear -- where whites were terrified, blacks were terrified, where anybody who tried to do the right thing was going to get crushed -- I got to be with these Christians who had the most surprising absence of fear. They just did the right thing.

“I came to believe that they lived that way because they actually believed that what Jesus said was true. And I found that, to the extent that I acted as if I believed what Jesus said was true, I lived without fear.”

*

[Original illustration at this number was obsolete]

Gordon Liddy's Rush of Reason

Luke 5:32

Gordon Liddy is a prime example of true meaning of repentance. He followed Nietzsche in his philosophy of “will to power” to overcome fear; he ate a rat to get over his fear of rats. He succeeded in life rapidly with notoriety gained through Watergate; he even had a Miami Vice appearance. When David Letterman asked him, “What happens after we die?” Liddy responded, “We are food for the worms.” His answer gave him a sense of inner unease so he sought out former FBI friends who invited him to a Bible study. He went because he had a historical interest in the Bible but came to see the Bible as God’s communication to man. He had a “rush of reason” and became a Christian.

[Liddy has disputed this account of his conversion but he is a convinced Catholic]

Epidemic of Fear

Acts 15:26

Battered by torrents of worrisome reports about the hazards in foods and the environment, Americans are engulfed in an epidemic - not of cancer but of fear. However, many scientists say obsessive reliance on bottled water and organic products is foolish. Instead, Americans should devote more concern to three things that cause the vast majority of premature deaths: alcohol, tobacco and over-consumption of saturated fats.

"Driving a car is pretty risky compared with, say, drinking apple juice with a trace of Alar in it," says Prof. Richard Wilson of Harvard University and an expert in comparing risks. The average American is thousands of times more likely to die in a car wreck than of cancer from pesticides. But in interviews with 25 shoppers buying organic produce at a local supermarket, nearly half said they had not worn their seat belts on the way to the store.

"People have an inappropriate sense of what is dangerous," says former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop. The truth is, Americans have never been healthier. Average life expectancy has risen steadily for decades, and most cancer death rates have remained stable or actually dropped.

Fear In the Forest

Personal story of building pine-bough hut in German forest for Boy Scout merit badge. Three hands were on ax due to fear of unseen noises, though scoutmaster checked up on us four times during the night.

Facing Down the Giants In Your Land

Numbers 13

Many believers are defeated by fear. God is perceived as the Enemy instead of the Deliverer. Numbers 13-14 and Deuteronomy 1 demonstrate a historical case. Moses' 12 spies were defeated by fear (at least, 10 of them were)

a. Fear is a fact of life.

b. Fear distorts reality.

c. Fear leads to a barren life.

1> We lose sight of God.

2> If we don't deal with fears, they simmer instead of going away.

d. Fear is defeated by standing on promises of God.

Afraid To Love

1 John 4:7

1 John 4:7-10 portrays the beauty and vulnerability of love. Jesus gave us who he was without needing anything at all from us in return. Most who received him wanted him to be something he was not. Most people are afraid to offer themselves to others in true love. We hide behind masks.

1. Fleeing fear by performing.

2. Fleeing fear by manipulating.

3. Fleeing fear by controlling.

Conquering fear.

Fear is conquered through repentance. "We must first have a biblical understanding of sin. Sin is more than just a behavior or thought that does not line up with the law. Sin, according to the Scriptures, is denying our dependency on God for life and turning to walk in a direction where we ourselves have taken responsibility for finding life separately from Him."

Repentance, then, requires admitting that the whole natural direction of our lives is away from God. The heart of Jesus offers us safe haven.

From Fear To Eternity

Luke 12:2

1. Reason to Fear

2. The One to Fear

3. A Clear View

4. Putting Fear in Perspective

A healthy fear of God, a faith-recognition of who He is--"the fire-core of the universe, the first and last of the living One"--puts human fear in perspective.

All our experiences are seen and heard by our caring God. We are not forgotten.

Children's Sermon

Children's sermon with stuffed lion and lamb as props. Animals don't naturally get along (neither do people) but in future God will make them feel safe, and human children as well.

They Were Afraid To Get Swamped

Luke 19:10

Survivor Eva Hart remembers the night April 15, 1912, on which the Titanic plunged 12,000 feet to the Atlantic floor, some two hours and forty minutes after an iceberg tore a 300-foot gash in her starboard side: "I saw all the horror of its sinking, and I heard, even more dreadful, the cries of drowning people."

Although twenty lifeboats and rafts were launched -- too few and only partly filled -- most of the passengers ended up struggling in the icy seas while those in the boats waited a safe distance away.

Lifeboat #14 did row back to the scene after the "unsinkable" ship slipped from sight at 2:20 a.m. Alone, it chased cries in the darkness, seeking and saving a precious few. Incredibly, no other boat joined it. Some were already overloaded, but in virtually every other boat, those already saved rowed their half-filled boats aimlessly in the night, listening to the cries of the lost. Each feared a crush of unknown swimmers would cling to their craft, eventually swamping it.

"I came to seek and to save the lost," our Savior said. And he commissioned us to do the same. But we face a large obstacle: fear. While people drown in the treacherous waters around us, we are tempted to stay dry and make certain no one rocks the boat. Yet the boat is not ours, and our safety came only at the expense of the one who overcame fear with love -- and saved us.

Take A Deep Breath and Relax

Luke 1:50

Picture this: Eric Valli, a professional photographer, is dangling by a nylon rope from a 395-foot cliff in Nepal. Nearby on a rope ladder is another man, Mani Lal, doing what he has done for decades: hunting honey. Here in the Himalayan foothills, the cliffs shelter honeycombs of the world’s largest honeybee.

At the moment, thousands of them are buzzing around both of men. Lal, a veteran of hundreds of such attacks, is calm. Not so Mr. Valli. Describing that moment in National Geographic, he says, “There were so many bees I was afraid I might freak out. But I knew if I did, I would be dead. So I took a deep breath and relaxed. Getting stung would be better than finding myself at bottom of the cliff.” He overcame his fears and won a photo competition for his efforts.

Fear can send a person plummeting to destruction. Some believers, fearing the stings of persecution, testing, and temptation, have compromised their faith and slipped from the lifeline of Christ - which is why the Bible teaches us to fear God alone.

182 Sermon Illustrations on Fear