10 Mistakes People Make with Being Afraid (plus 1 bonus)

Scared Child at NightLightning fast read meant to make you think…

10 Mistakes People Make with Being Afraid (plus 1 bonus):

1. Think they never will be.
2. Think if they are they aren’t a good Christian.
3. Play like they’re never afraid (preachers are good at this).
4. Overlook it’s protective qualities as an emotion many times (being afraid of falling over a cliff or drowning in a lake moves one to stay behind the guard rail or wear a life preserver).
5. Don’t know the number of times the Bible records, “Fear not / Do not fear” (one for at least every day of the year if you include “Fear God” as a way of saying it ~ Scripture covers you year-round with the reminder!).
6. Forget that even the greatest of Bible characters dealt with / were captured by fear, too (you’re not alone). (John 20:19)
7. Forget the antidote to fear (it’s faith! ~ an unshakeable confidence in the character of God). (Psalm 56:3)
8. Overlook it’s the typical human response to hardship, challenging circumstances, uncertain times, etc (“fright” is, along with flight). (1 Kings 19:1-3)
9. Don’t realize God uses it in the soul (yes, even the fear of Hell and missing of Heaven) to draw people to Himself / salvation in His Son. (Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:15; John 3:16)
10. Misunderstand the good side of it (the fear / reverence of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom). (Proverbs 9:10; Psalm 111:10)

BONUS Exploit, manipulate, advance their own selfish and destructive agenda over, get their way with and control others by ginning it up.

(Picture above is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license: click here.)

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Pastor Mike is making the most of web technologies to encourage disciples. A self-proclaimed “twitterholic,” one twitter follower describes him as the “jogging, blogging, tweeting Pastor.” Visits to Pastor Mike’s blog (A Heart For God) number in the hundreds of thousands. His video blogs have been viewed over a half a million times.