Fear and Trust

It has been a month and a half since my last post, I apologize. That is 3 posts that did not get created, for as I have said before: my aim is to post twice a month (that is about every other week). When I moved, about a month and a half ago, I happened to leave most of my motivation of productivity behind. One of my friends has worded it "transition depression". I personally thing that is a little strong of a phrase for it, but at the time it was a phase of laziness that I knew would pass the more I became situated back home. Enough about my negligence...

This time I would like to throw some ideas out there concerning the ideas of Fear, Trust and Obedience. This will both be less practical and exegetical then usual and more philosophical and logical. On this post more than others, I want to start conversation and hear your thoughts. Tell me what you disagree with and give me arguments and support for the way you understand these topics. Please, post sharing your ideas.

These issues have been stirring in my head for quite a while now, for most of the time since I started in Joshua about a year ago, actually. A couple of my earlier posts hit on this issue as well Acting in Confidence of God's Faithfulness and Reader's Question Regarding Fear. I have had the opportunity to have some conversations with some friends about this as well, and they have challenged me to consider aspects I hadn't before. Anyways, without further ado...

Fear, and Trust.

Joshua 1:9

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord you God is with you wherever you go."

The question driving me in pursuit of this topic is thus: "Is God commanding that we* act in despite of our fear/being frightened or is He commanding that we do not even have fear."

When I began to consider this passage I began from the perspective of the former, that is, it seemed to me that God was telling us to act in despite of our fears and emotions. As time has passed and I have further considered what God did and showed in the book of Joshua and as I held conversation with various people, I have swayed to hold that this is a command to not have fear (of emotion), period. Regardless the position one is currently holding to, the first question must first be: "what is fear?"

This is where the challenge in answering the first question is because there are at least 2 types of fear:

[1] Fear as an emotion: This is a feeling; something like the apprehensive feeling we get about something we are unsure of or cannot control.

I.E. when going in for a Job interview, when a spider lands on us, when we hit a patch of black ice on a corner in the winter etc...

[2] Fear controlling action: This is a motivator/demotivator.

I.E. I see being a productive member of my community worthwhile (thus I desire to avoid [fear] not to be one), so I go to the job interview; I don't want to get cavities, so I brush my teeth; I desire not to developing lazy habits, so I set my alarm even on the weekends.

Thus the original question is: Which of these two is God commanding against?

It seems to me that the command is against the fear of emotion*** I do believe, though that this will inevitably start with acting in spite of our emotional fears as well as in the end include it. That is, we begin to dissolve the fear of emotion by acting despite our fears. In a sort of testing way, which is the only way we can act in obedience despite our emotions. here is an example:

Lets say Sam is a young girl who has a very loving and strong father. If Sam's father told her to fall back with her eyes closed, he would catch her. Sam would in no way ever doubt that he would not catch her because He has shown (through previous experiences) that he is both able to catch her and faithful to follow through on his word to protect her. In this case Sam would have no fear (emotional) and she would have no fear (of motivation to avoid being dropped); However, this was not always so. When Sam was first born, she new nothing about her father, but after the years in countless times and in countless ways her father has shown her that he not only has the ability to care for her, but he loves her in a way that he will always protect her (and thus be faithful in promises).

Now let's say it is the same man, but he has adopted an 8 year old boy, we will call him Steve. The father has the boy do the same thing, but the boy is hesitant. The first time, as soon as Steve starts to fall he catches himself, but after some prompting, he cautiously falls into the fathers hands. As he does this though, he turns his head as he is falling to assure himself that the father is still there. Steve may see that the father is able to catch him, but he obviously not trust the faithfulness and willingness of the father to catch him. As they continue on this process of Steve trusting the father, Steve will have less and less emotional fear with each passing.

Sam did not have the fear of emotion and thus did not have the fear of motivation.

Steve at first had both the fear of emotion and the fear of motivation to begin with, but soon had only the fear of emotion. He had come to the point where he was acting in spite of his emotional fear for the sake of testing the father's faithfulness.

Sometimes we act despite our fear on the basis of minimal trust (like Steve), but is that 'trust' in spite of our fear actually more of a test of trustworthiness and ability towards the one who gave the promise? There is then a 'trust' that is a 'test' just as much as there is a 'trust' that removes 'fear'. These two trusts are leagues apart, as much different than the trust between two strangers shaking hands on the street and two trapeze partners flying above the audience together. It seems that if one were to truly in the purist and deepest sense trust, then the fear would dissipate, since the feared result would be (to the person) so unlikely it would be a non-issue (like Sam).

This, I believe is why I can say that God is commanding us to have no fear of those who oppose him: He is able to do what He promises, and He is faithful to do what He promises.

How do we come to that "true" trust in God that will keep us from fear as he commands in Joshua 1:9? Well, just like with anybody else, we learn (in the most thorough sense) about the ability and faithfulness of the person that makes the "promise". This happens through the experience and being informed by a trusted source. In the simplest answer it means to continue to study the Scriptures, that is hearing from a trusted source of His faithfulness and ability, and to continually act in obedience despite our emotional fears, so that He will prove Himself.

Once again, I would love to hear discussion on this. What do you agree/disagree with and why?

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9/14/2010

For the King,

~Andrew Voigt

joshuaspromise.blogspot.com

*I realize that this passage is directly being spoken to Joshua, but know that the promises and commands in this passage are shared with all who are people of the Kingdom of God. If you want more info on this, as me for my paper "The Commissioning of Joshua and Its Relationship to the People of God's Kingdom"

** When people reduce the world to only physical and scientific causes then (at least in their minds) eventually they will be deceived into believing it and in their deceit nothing will be not understandable (catch the double negative) and if we (supposedly) understand everything, we can thus control everything. So then, is suppressing the belief of God primarily an attempt to escape fear? (and thus try to be maintain control. As opposed to an all powerful ruler and judge having it.)

*** I realize, yes, there are legitimate emotional fears, but they are to be kept in check. The do not fear hear is "do not fear, God will do and get done what he says he will do and get done."