TACF Journal

The other day, I was getting some gas at a local gas station. In a hurry, I spouted my usual “twenty on one, please,” handed the cashier my cash, and waited. But as he took the money, he muttered something slightly unintelligible, with an obviously frustrated tone. I shot him a puzzled look, and in reply, he stated, “Someone gave me a fake twenty the other day. Now everything I touch feels fake. Like, this money in the drawer, these ones, these fives? They all feel fake!”

I expressed my surprise and regret at his misfortune, and went my way, thinking it was a strange occurrence, but not giving it a second thought. Later on in the day, I recalled what the cashier had said. Revelation struck me like lightning, and I heard the Lord say, “Many people let bad experiences be a filter through which they judge every other experience. Don’t allow the fear of these experiences to cloud your judgment.”

It’s funny what people will do to avoid fearful situations—even if they are merely perceived fearful situations. As people begin to focus in on the chaotic thoughts that bounce around in their heads, fear blows everything out of proportion. They avoid a people group, a church, a street corner, even refuse to travel to an area of a town. They do almost anything to avoid that experience—all because of fear.

In Hinds Feet on High Places, Much Afraid is a prime example of a fearful person (obviously!). When she reaches the Precipice Injury, her cousin Craven Fear describes a terrible picture of what it will be like to ascend the huge mountain. The Shepherd comes to rescue her from her terror and admonishes later, “…if you ever let Craven Fear begin painting a picture on the screen of your imagination, you will walk with fear and agony, where no fear is.” I can identify so much with Much Afraid! Fear works a lot like a false alarm for me. It goes off when I feel afraid of some upcoming situation, and it keeps going off until the situation I am afraid of happens. But the funny thing is the situation never unfolds quite the way I feared it would.

Fear overpowers and paralyzes, prevents us from moving forward, and causes us to flee from situations and people that may truly be beneficial or godly. Fear idolizes our own opinions and experiences, putting them even above the opinion of God. Now that’s a really scary thought.

Imagine you are standing on the edge of a promontory. When you look down, you can see straight to the bottom where the huge waves are crashing mercilessly against the ragged rocks. But that’s all you can see. Now imagine you are an eagle looking down on yourself, soaring above the clouds. You see the whole cliff, the tree line behind it, the sea, the waves…you get the picture. You can see so much more if you change your perspective!

We have first the “horizontal” view. If we focus only on what is finite and tangible—our experiences, our opinions—then we’ll have a pretty limited view of the world. But the Lord knows what we need better than we do ourselves—clearly he knows us better than we do. He is like the eagle. He can see everything in a glance—past, present, future, and beyond. This is the “vertical” view. If we can just exchange our perspective for a heavenly one, imagine how much clearer our view will be.

Think of the Israelites—they had just left Egypt, eager to be on their way to a land flowing with milk and honey. But then—disaster strikes.

“The Egyptians—all Pharaoh's horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon. As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the LORD.” (Exodus 14:9)

Many scholars speculate that Pi Hahiroth means “the mouth of the canal” meaning it was probably an area that had walls on both sides before leading to the sea below. Simply put, the Israelites were in a situation that seemed pretty hopeless. They were literally trapped between a rock and a hard place—with a whole lot of deep water at one end, and at the other thousands of Egyptians bent on genocide. The interesting thing is that in the beginning of the chapter the Lord actually told Moses to go to that exact spot. Have you ever felt like God’s leading isn’t as easy as it looked at first, and that He’s just about to leave you there to fend for yourself? I have. But again, our perspective is different than His. What may seem impossible or even insane to us is entirely possible to our Lord.

“Moses answered the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the LORD will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still." (Exodus 14:13,14)

Be still… I think that many times we’re just not still enough. We forget what His voice sounds like in the bustle of everyday worries. We are so busy shaking in our boots, it’s hard to hear that quiet assurance of the Father, “Why are you worrying so much? I’ve got a plan. Come up here and see the big picture!”

Well, you know the Israelites’ story from here. God did have a plan—he made a way where there seemed to be no way at all—and he destroyed with a breath all the Egyptians before the Israelites’ eyes. So how can fear be conquered? Align yourself with His heavenly Kingdom perspective and everything else will fall into place. Shut down that internal fear alarm by dwelling in His presence and asking the Holy Spirit to show you the Father’s perspective of your scary situation. Proverbs 18:10 says, “The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runs into it and is safe.” We need to remember who the Author and Finisher of our faith is, and throwing off every hindrance, including ourselves, run passionately towards His face.