FEAR-- is your worse enemy and your best friend all rolled into one package.
Without fear, our lives would be very short and filled with injuries and sickness.Fear is what keeps us alive, it is a warning sign we use to protect ourselves from injury and sickness IE:{We are afraid to put our hand into an open flame because it will burn us and cause great pain, and serious injury.We are afraid to get food poisoning, so we wrap food up and store it properly, discarding it when it has sat too long}, these are examples of fear working for us to protect is.
With too much fear, our lives would seem to last forever, each day would feel like a million years.We would be paralyzed, stuck in our homes too afraid to leave, or worse in one room.We would be too afraid to live and too afraid to die.IE:{a few years ago in a major American city, in a downtown apartment a family suffocated to death. They were so afraid of the street crime that they had nailed all the windows shut., in their street level unit.That year the outside temperature was well over 100 degrees for an extended period of time.]This is an example of fear destroying us.
Another side of fear is racial intolerance.Mankind fears what he doesn't understand.This leads to an unnatural desire to transform anyone who is different or destroys them.Some extreme examples of this are the cases of ethnic cleansing all too common in the world today IE: eastern Europe, Africa middle east,911 etc.All of these cases are examples of uncontrolled fear and the desire of mankind to change or destroy what we don't understand, Hitler's fear of the Jews lead to the best-known case of mass murder in history.A reported six million people dead because they worshipped differently, FEAR IS THE UGLIEST THING ALIVE TODAY, THE ABSOLUTE WORST, it destroys without mercy anything it touches, both the ones who are afraid and the ones, who are feared. I've pointed out a few of the worse cases,but I believe everyone has their own story of how fear has had a negative effect on their lives or someone they know, The father in north central USA who shot and killed his young daughter, who was playing peek-a-boo, when he came home from work.The father who believed that he had to carry a gun for protection his family, because of fear he killed his own child.I could go on for several more pages, but I think you get the point--FEAR DESTROYS LIVES.
THE BIBLE tells us that the entire Jewish nation was kept out of THE PROMISED LAND for forty years because of fear.There were many believers in the early church who were martyred because the established churches were afraid they would lose their hold on the people.The new church was different and misunderstood, SO IT HAD TO BE DESTROYED.
I'm fond was saying " I love to see GOD TURNING EVIL INTO GOOD', but this is one case where satan turns the tables on GOD.GOD gave us fear for our protection, but satan turned it into his most deadly weapon WITH OUR HELP.
some of the other ways that fear can be used to cause pain is in relations.Too many times, we get into a relation because of fear of being alone.We jump at the first offer we get just to have someone in our lives, that is certainly a relation built on a foundation of sand.The first time the road gets a bit rough there is nothing there to carry you through it .i believe the worse case of fear is when people trapped are in an abusive relation, through fear.The fear of being alone.Deep down they know, they should get out, but can't.This leads to them fall into a state of self-hate when you don't love yourself you can't love anyone or anything else, not even GOD.This completes the trap, for the only way out is GOD and you are cut off from HIM.