Fixing Fear Thesis: Although fear inevitably enters the mind, a person must conquer fear in order to obey God, to benefit himself, and to imitate heroes. God desires Christians to be courageous. Since God promises always to remain with His children, He instructs them to have no fear (Josh. 1:9, Isa. 41:10). Quickly consuming us, fear becomes an idol—in other words, anything that a person places before God. Similar to other idols, fear keeps the person from carrying out God’s will. When God asks someone to perform a task outside of his comfort zone, as God often does, the person must decide what to follow: his own fear or God’s calling. Additionally, Christians need courage in order to resist evil. The devil plants seeds of fear in people’s minds so that they will not stand firm in their beliefs. However, God wants Christians to practice fortitude in order to resist Satan’s schemes (Eph. 6:11). Moreover, fear of the world is the opposite of trust in God. Thus, God knows the dangers of fear and …show more content…
For example, courage brings great joy to missionaries such as George Müller. Running several large orphanages on a low budget, Müller occasionally failed to provide enough food for all of the children. However, fear of starvation never swayed him from his utter trust in God’s provision and timing. As a result, God always provided the orphans and Müller’s family with enough food, often in miraculous ways. On one such occasion, the orphans stood by their chairs waiting for their breakfast. Even though the matron of the orphanage could find nothing for the orphans to eat, Müller calmly thanked God for the food he knew God would provide. Directly after the children seated themselves, a baker and a milkman showed up one after the other. Between them, they provided enough breakfast for the three hundred children (Benge and Benge 166-168). Choosing trust over fear always proves