False Evidence Appearing Real (FEAR)

I recently saw a clever acrostic for the word "fear": False Evidence Appearing Real. Sometimes we frighten ourselves with our very own thoughts and become ourown worst enemy. Fear can jump-start the mind into overdrive, allowing our imaginations to paint vivid mental pictures of the worst possible outcomes. We can ignore certain fears throughout the course of a busy day, but they often intrude when we are trying to unplug in the evening. Even on fairly worry-free days, we can go to sleep immediately, only to have our fears show up in our dreams.

Even though we often think of fear as a purely mental phenomenon, it has devastating effects on our bodies as well. The skin sweats profusely, the heart beats rapidly, and the stomach knots tightly. Yet if fear's drastic effects are so clearly manifested, why do we continue to surrender to it?

This is not to say that all fear is always based on false evidence. Weare commanded to fear the Lord with trembling reverence, and even our joy is to be accompanied by that fear (Psalm 2:11). Fear is also alife-giving fountain that alarms us to the snares of genuine danger around us. What I am speaking of is fear in the ungodly sense, the all-consumingterror or worry that God promises to deliver us from. We often forget that this type of fear is not only an agony we can cast onto God, but also an offense that we must ask Him to forgive.

When we elevate the lies of the evil one over the truths of God, we must acknowledge this as sin. And if we will look closely, we will notice that the evil around us holds up a mirror to our very own souls, making us painfully aware that true evidence of evil is also within ourselves. What we should truly fear is our ability to justify--and even value--being paralyzed by sin when all along our Savior promises to rescue us from its crippling grasp.

Are you frightening yourself based on false evidence that is appearing real? Fear in our lives will never change if we look solely toward man-made remedies, a starting point that can never lavish serenity on our hearts. A secular solution alone can neither give the security that God can give, nor can it even define the evil within the human heart that only God can cure. As we acknowledge the true evidence of evil in our hearts, let us also allow God to sanctify us from it daily through the power of the Holy Spirit. A secular solution alone can neither give the security that God can give, nor can it even define the evil within the human heart that only God can cure. As we acknowledge the true evidence of evil in our hearts, let us allow God to sanctify us from it daily through the power of the Holy Spirit.

If you worry constantly due to ungodly fear, take a moment to meditate on these sweet words of Christ:

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear… Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? …Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own"(Matthew 6:25-34).

Alison Thomas is an Associate Apologist with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.

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