Fears

Fear (or phobia) is a valid human emotion which all of us have experienced in one form or another.  In fact, there are so many different types of fear that linguists have coined words to label them.  It can range from the inanimate such as fear of heights (acrophobia) and fear of darkness (achluophobia) to the animate such as fear of insects (acarophobia) and fear of people (anthropophobia).  People who have many fears are suffering from polyphobia.  Fear is an instinctive human response to potential danger, whether they be rationale or otherwise.  What happens when we are fearful is that chemicals would be released in our body causing our heart to beat rapidly, our blood pressure to increase and so forth.  We can identify with this kind of responses when we we have a near-missed or an actual car accident on the road; of course, we are still alive to tell the tale. 

Children are often fearful of the dark, imagining all kinds of creatures that could lurk there.  They will usually grow out of it when they are older.  Creepy crawlies is another common fear among children; even adults may be fearful of them.  Just recently, I saw a girl in school jumped up when she saw a monitor lizard on the trunk of a tree, though she was quite a distance away from it.  Many children, including adults, are afraid of cockroaches, especially the flying kind.  They would run away to hide or lock themselves in their rooms.  But seriously, the monitor lizards and cockcroaches won't be able to kill us (logically speaking) but for some of us, just the thought of them crawling all over us can already send a spine-chilling sensation down our body and that is the fear factor.   As a parent, even though you may be fearful of creepy crawlies, you would have to overcome your fear to get rid of them, especially in the home, unless of course you have a helper at home to do the job.   My colleague was sharing that if there is a cockroach in the house, she would ask her domestic help to get rid of it.  She does not want to let her children know as they were not afraid of it and would catch it to frighten her. 

I would like to discuss regarding the fear of death or dying (thanatophobia) which may be plaguing many people.  The Bible does talk about this in Heb 2:14-15 (NIV):

"Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity so that by His death He might break the power of him who holds the power of death - that is, the devil -  and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death."

Death is no respecter of persons.  Whether we are young or old, rich or poor, famous or unknown, all would be subjected to it.  The only exception would be the believers living during the time when Christ returns.  In the verses above, we are told that the devil has the ability to put fear in people through his control over the power of death.  This fear can be paralysing for some because they do not know what lies beyond the grave.  But for those of us who know Jesus Christ, we have the blessed assurance that we will meet Him when we die.  God used the death of His beloved Son on the cross of Calvary to overcome death, both physical and spiritual.

Spiritual death has to do with separation from God.  Whether Jews of Gentiles, we, who were once far away from God, have been brought near to Him by the blood of Christ restoring the broken fellowship that the devil initiated at the garden of Eden (Eph 2:13-18).  When we are restored in our relationship with God, the devil can no longer enslave us through his power of death.  Some may not believe in the spiritual realm, thinking that death is the end of all things.  Yet others may believe in moving on a different realm of existence whether through reincarnation or otherwise.  According to their beliefs, people will live out their lives on earth. 

Physical death has to do the ceasation of our vital human organs, especially the heart and brain.  When that happens, the body would turn cold with its life taken out.  The physical body is but a housing for our soul and spirit which would live on.  Our current body is stained with sin and sickness, and cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.  God has in store for the believers glorified bodies which He would give on resurrection day.  That is when the spirit and soul would be clothed with immortality and death would have been swallowed up in victory (1 Cor 15:54).  Death would no longer reign but rather life, because Jesus is the Life (Jn 11:25; 14:6).

We can face death in the face when we have Jesus in our hearts.  And in the words of the hymn:
And because He lives, I can face tomorrow
Because He lives, all fear is gone
And because I know, I know He holds the future
And life is worth the living just because He lives