After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision:
“Do not be afraid, Abram.
I am your shield,
Your very great reward”.
None of us know how strong fear really is. Yet of a truth all know that fear is a very strong negative force. Even those held bound by it confess it with a strong regret, in such a way that you can clearly see that they will readily accept help if they can see any. Nobody likes fear. In some cases people are ignorant of its presence. What I mean is that they do not realize that they do things they do because they are afraid. They sight one reason or the other; but not fear. Some employ what psychologists call “Defense Mechanism”. In this case they try to dissuade you from going to that area of their lives.
What ever is the case, fear exists. And God hates fear. Some who carried out some research in the bible discovered that the bible discouraged fear 366 times. That is how much God hates fear. There are 365 days of the year and 366 days in a leap year. God took time to make such we get one “Fear not” for each day.
From our text, AFTER THIS, God said to Abram, “Fear not”. After what? After a man had conquered an army stronger than he; after he had escaped being polluted by a gift from the king of Sodom, which represented the world and her systems; after he had paid his tithe from the day’s business- for the bible recorded that he paid his tithe to a man of God called Mechizedech, after he made a wonderful confession to the king of Sodom- king of sin and abomination- and the king of righteousness. Representing the assembly of the children of God. After this after what? The people who returned from the battle with Abraham went home singing his praise to their wives and families and his enemies lament their humiliation in the hands of this mighty man.
After this, only one person knew that fear, deep seethed fear was lurking in the heart of this great servant of God. Abraham was afraid. The fear did not show in his voice, the fear did not show on his face, the fear did not show in his physical attitude. But that fear was there. He was afraid. The truth is that many of us live like this. Deep in our hearts we are mesmerized by this torture of an enemy who we cannot just lay hand on and throw him out of our lives. He bears no muscles but he is strangling us. And quite often we don’t know how to fight him and nobody else knows it is there but us.
There are many things we fear. Yes, many things that the enemy of our souls capitalizes on to torment us. We carry them about everyday, nobody else see them. Even if they see them very few of them can be helped by anyone else but God.
That was Abraham’s state. He was afraid of something every other person around him can see but cannot help. May be that is the state of my reader. Yes, you may be afraid. There is no lion or physical danger before you. But the truth is that you will readily exchange your position for that of a lion danger or any such thing. Hence the Lord says to you also “FEAR NOT!”
Abraham had a justifiable reason to fear. Just a few years ago he lost his father on a trip. That was after he lost his brother whose son is following him about. In the midst of the mourning he heard a voice of one he now knows as the Almighty God. This God promised to help him if only he will leave whatever he saw as an inheritance from his father and go to the place he will be shown. On getting to this place the first thing he discovered was that he came at a wrong time; there was famine in the land. As if that was not enough, there were other people living there and claiming ownership of the land. Abraham was afraid, but like most of us instead of confessing this fear to God who called him he tried to hide this and act on impulse. He went to Egypt. If you ask him on his way while going to Egypt, he may say he had a relation there or that he was playing matured Christianity. He did not want to be fanatical about his faith. There are many people today who have left the perfect way out of fear, pastors who went into a business they had no business doing, believers who refused to marry because they were afraid the man may not be able to feed them, or that they have not enough money to feed their wives, etc. I discovered during my deliverance counseling that many children of God had indulged abortion because they were afraid they might not have the means to feed the unborn child. Pastors have resisted the Spirit’s leading to move to a new location because they cannot see how they can make it there. Believers who feared that their wives may not bear children for them as she is barren, had cooked up fictitious charges against her so that the church can permit them to divorce her and take another wife. If that fails they leave the church and go ahead to divorce their wives.
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