Moses1:20 And it came to pass that Moses began to afear exceedingly; and as he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of bhell. Nevertheless, ccalling upon God, he received dstrength, and he commanded, saying: Depart from me, Satan, for this one God only will I worship, which is the God of eglory.
At first, Moses was quite courageous in rebuking and withstanding Satan, asking twice "Where is thy glory?" But when Satan then threw a temper tantrum, "ranting upon the earth", Moses was frightened. After he began to fear, he saw the bitterness of hell.
We are told repeatedly in the scriptures not to fear. Especially we should not fear man. We must remember that God is in charge, not our boss, or our enemy or anyone else. A friend recently reminded us of that, quoting the hymn How Firm a Foundation. "Fear not, I am with thee; oh be not dismayed, for I am thy God and will still give thee aid. I'll strengthen thee, help thee and cause thee to stand, upheld by my righteous omnipotent hand."
I'm undecided about fear. It seems to me that we should fear some things. Or at least have a healthy respect for those things. Satan is one thing I have some fear of. I'm sure there are many others. But when Moses began to fear, things got much worse for him. Fear caused him to lose control of the situation. I think fear is the opposite of faith. (I'm a little slow, but I get it eventually.) We can't have both fear and faith in our hearts at the same time. So fear crowded out faith, and Moses viewed the bitterness of hell.
But Moses knew where the strength had to come from. He surely didn't have the strength on his own to fight off Satan, or even to get rid of the fear. So he called upon God. He chose faith. And God gave him strength to rebuke Satan in the name of the Only Begotten. Then Satan, with much weeping and wailing, departed.
If I allow myself to fear, I push out faith. I forget that the Lord is in charge, that He loves me, that He always wants what's best for me.
Here's a lovely hymn that just came to mind: When Faith Endures.
I will not doubt, I will not fear;
God's love and strength are always near.
His promised gift helps me to find
An inner strength and peace of mind.
I give the Father willingly
My trust, my prayers, humility.
His Spirit guides; His love assures
That fear departs when faith endures.
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I believe it is that same fear that brings us down into depression. We fear that God's promises are not going to work on us or our children or in this situation or whatever, and we become despondant and full of self-pity and self-hate which leads to a deep depression. God's message is always one of promise and joy. I think faith is also the opposite of depression.
ReplyDelete(Not talking about chemical/clinical depression here)