Biblical Advice About Fear

by Cherry Pedrick, RN

copyright 2000

I go to a great church and I have a great pastor. Click here to visit my wonderful church. http://www.shadowhills.org/

Pastor Michael Rochelle's sermon really hit home last week. He talked about fear. I can relate and I am sure most of you can relate to the problem of fear. So, I will share some of what he had to say. And I'll try to give it some special application to those of us with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

We all have lots of real fears. He listed six:

• The fear of not having enough.

• The fear of death.

• The fear of ill health.

• The fear of losing love.

• The fear of getting older.

• The fear of criticism.

That's enough things to fear. But we with OCD have even more fears. Some are irrational. I suspect most are rational fears that have just taken hold in our obsessive brains. Why do we fear? He listed three reasons for fear:

• Ignorance - by that, we mean not knowing how to handle the situations.

• Uncontrollable situations - we've all experienced that. Everyday there are situations we can't control.

• Guilt - yes, sometimes we do wrong and we fear the consequences.

Then Pastor Rochelle referred to the story of Peter who was in a boat with some other disciples when he saw Jesus walk across the water. The story is found in Matthew 14:22-32:

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, abut the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It's a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.

But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid."

"Lord, if it's you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."

"Come," he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic