While I was walking recently in my favourite park by the river, I noticed some workers putting a few fake coyotes by the pond where many geese hang out. The goal is to scare the geese away, as they make a mess pooping all over the walks.
The next day I noticed that the decoys were still there, but so were the geese. They knew that the decoys were nothing to fear and were not phased by them.
This made me think of things that we commonly fear, and although some of these might be considered reasonable things to fear, with God as our Heavenly Father, we don’t actually have to fear them -almost as though they were fake. We simply don’t have to fear whatever comes our way, because God cares for us: “Are not five sparows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are numbered. Fear not, you are of more value than many sparrows” (Luke 12:6 -7).
“Do not fear” is found hundreds of times in the Bible. Because of our loving, powerful, Heavenly Father, who works for our ultimate good, we don’t have to fear.
But we are also told in the Bible to fear God! This is a healthy kind of fear. Our God is awesome, powerful, all-knowing. We can’t just treat Him and His instructions any old way and expect our lives to be blessed! Consider a stove, that is so helpful to heat up our food, but we wouldn’t put our hand on an element when it’s hot. We have a healthy kind of fear for that hot element. We have a healthy fear of water, when we go boating we wear life jackets. God is not to be trifled with. He made us, He knows what is best for us and the whole world, and we need to relate to Him appropriately. That’s where we’ll find blessing.
To fear or not to fear? Don’t fear circumstances or people, but do fear God. It’s the way to thrive!
