Fear

 Fear 

~Our memory verse was Isaiah 43:1 and our bonus verse was Isaiah 43:2.~

We first dealt with what exactly fear is. Here are a few notes....

According to Webster’s 1828 dictionary, it is “To feel a painful apprehension of some impending evil; to be afraid of; to consider or expect with emotions of alarm or solicitude.”  And in the American Heritage Dictionary, it is described as “An emotion of alarm and agitation caused by the expectation or realization of danger; to be afraid, frightened, or terrified.”  
 there is a difference between being scared and fearing the Lord.  When the Bible talks about “fearing the Lord”, it means treating the Lord with reverence, awe, and respect.  Psalms 19:9 says that “the fear of the Lord is clean”, and in Ecclesiastes 12:14 we are told to “Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.”  
 - Is fear a sin?
Just plain fear is not a sin in and of itself; it is an emotion.  But we can allow our fear to overtake us and keep us from obeying God.  That’s when it can become a sin or lead us into sin. 

Then We went into Part two.....

Apply His word to your life

What I mean by that is we need to memorize scripture more. Now I know pretty much everyone here does a really good job at this--I am the worst at memorizing scripture and am telling myself this as much as you girls--. But we need to memorize verses for those times of fear and suffering. Our living God has given us words to live by so...let’s live by them!! I remember a couple of years ago I had a horrible nightmare and I awoke very frightened. I was so scared i didn’t even want to get out of bed to go to my parents who were just in the next bedroom. So as a way to know that I was safe I started to repeat a verse (and I don’t remember what verse it was that I kept repeating). Well, anyway as I kept saying this verse I started to feel this peace come over me, and I realized that the Lord had come to me when I called out to Him to rescue me from my fear and dread.

And if you don’t get anything back from this lesson i want you to understand that the Lord is stronger than any fear you have. Remember in the beginning of the lesson I asked you to think about your greatest fear, now I want you to compare that to Christ. That fear seems scary compared to us puny little humans, but when we compare it to the Lord who defeated death itself! He wins Every time.

Having a Greater fear When I was about 5 years old my greatest fear was the dark. When everything seemed to creak and footsteps could be heard in my imagination. When I was about 9 my greatest fear was not having any friends (we had just moved here). When I was about 11 my greatest fear was me having to leave my friends when my parents had decided to home school me. Now that I am almost 15 my greatest fear is not being good enough. Do you see a pattern? When I grow I seem to shed off my fears. Sylvia and I are both Christians who love the Lord, but we are in different stages of life. And that is perfectly fine, but I know for a fact we have different fears. I know that in 10 years I will have a different fear that will be just as hard to overcome as it is to overcome the one I am facing right now. When I look back at myself when I was 5 years old….the dark doesn’t scare me anymore, and a big part of it is that I developed a greater fear. If my greatest fear is the Lord then soon enough He will be the only one I fear, but it takes time and prayer and a whole lot of suffering to get there.

-Taylor and Olivia