FEAR IS FUN…SOMETIMES!

All we could hear was shrill screams coming from the people stuck at the top of a Ferris wheel ride at our city home days fair. The amusement ride workers were helping people board the ride at the bottom. That left the people at the top, mostly teenage kids, dangling in the open-air carts, rocking back and forth from the momentum of the stopped ride. The thrill of being stalled 30 feet in the air was unnerving and they reacted by screaming!

Soon, the Ferris wheel started in motion and most of the patrons were nervously laughing and squealing. It was exhilarating for them to be frightened for fifteen minutes on a circling ride with no mishaps. The fear factor was the point because fear is fun…sometimes.

It is okay to momentarily be filled with fear on a ride at the fair. That type of fear is fleeting, a momentary surge of emotion. But nobody lives at the top of a Ferris wheel, camping out there all the time.

In the same way, no one should live with fear and dread, expecting something horrible to always happen to them. Irrational fear causes people to dread an assumed harmful outcome as if it were real. The power of fear lies in the threat of death, harm or punishment and the mystery of the unknown. This dark veil over a person’s thinking creates anxiety that makes fear their master.

They respond to their fear by finding ways to avoid what they think might happen. The power of fear seizes their heart and halts their activities. Simple tasks may seem enormous when fear overwhelms us. And social settings become events to avoid because of fear and distrust of other people.

God wants to break the power of imaginary fears and replace them with His rational wisdom. In Psalm 27:1, the Bible assures us, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?”  The enlightenment of your mind comes from God’s Word, His will and His ways. We can protect our minds from unproven fears and have ease of heart because God will speak true thoughts into our soul. We have to re-train ourselves to believe who God is for us. Read the Book of Psalms and find out for yourself.

Finally, we are told in the Philippians 4:6-7 how to tackle fear and dread by calling upon God through prayer. “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension shall guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” The assurance of God’s presence when you invite Him into all that you are worried about will remove the dark veil of fear. We may not always know how, but we definitely know Who.