Vision and Fear
THIS WEEK, we shall be looking at another enemy of vision. Its name is fear. Fear is an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger. It is a future pain carried into today. It is an anxious feeling that what is not may be. Anytime there is a doubt about the future, fear becomes inevitable.
The torment of fear is demonstrated more in the limitations it places on a man and the society that he bears influence over. A fearful man can only go far but not farther. If he dreams at all, it will be a little insignificant dream.
Fear of failure is more dangerous than failure itself. The man who fails has learnt a lesson that probably will stand him in good stead with future challenges. The man who fears failure has no experience to draw from. No man has won big without being daring. And no daring man allows fear to gain ascendancy over his heart.
Fear of the unknown is one of the reasons there are few dreamers. A dreamer creates a picture of the unknown and lives it out as if it were real. That’s too much for the fearful. There are just too many things that could go wrong. You can’t just trust people to live up to expectations. No one has ever done this kind of a thing before. This is just not the right time for such a dream. How can I possibly raise such a huge sum? The banks would not lend money for a thing like this. There is just no way Ann will agree to marry me. I am not just in her class. The litany goes on and on…
More than a psychological state of mind, fear is a spirit. It is a spiritual force that seeks to underguard our lives and frustrate our daring spirit. The torment of fear is awesome. Its pain is far reaching. It incapacitates and weakens our resolve. It increases the size of our challenge beyond its real proportion. It is the reason we stand like ants before the giants of our challenges. It is the reason why we sit when we should stand; why we stand when we should crawl; why we crawl when we should run; or why we run when we should fly.
Someone has observed that there are 366 admonitions not to fear in the scriptures. One for each day of the year. There is even an allowance for the leap year! This is God’s way of safeguarding the dreams he has placed in each of our hearts. Our dreams are as good as dead when we allow fear to rule in our hearts.
So, face your fears – all of them – today. Refuse to bow down to its tyrannical rule. Decide to be on top of your fear. Tell yourself there is nothing to fear about today. Refuse to carry the pain of tomorrow into today. The challenges of today are enough for you than to borrow into tomorrow. Let me leave you this morning with a quotation from Franklin D. Roosevelt: in his first inaugural address as US president. He said and I quote: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.".
The torment of fear is demonstrated more in the limitations it places on a man and the society that he bears influence over. A fearful man can only go far but not farther. If he dreams at all, it will be a little insignificant dream.
Fear of failure is more dangerous than failure itself. The man who fails has learnt a lesson that probably will stand him in good stead with future challenges. The man who fears failure has no experience to draw from. No man has won big without being daring. And no daring man allows fear to gain ascendancy over his heart.
Fear of the unknown is one of the reasons there are few dreamers. A dreamer creates a picture of the unknown and lives it out as if it were real. That’s too much for the fearful. There are just too many things that could go wrong. You can’t just trust people to live up to expectations. No one has ever done this kind of a thing before. This is just not the right time for such a dream. How can I possibly raise such a huge sum? The banks would not lend money for a thing like this. There is just no way Ann will agree to marry me. I am not just in her class. The litany goes on and on…
More than a psychological state of mind, fear is a spirit. It is a spiritual force that seeks to underguard our lives and frustrate our daring spirit. The torment of fear is awesome. Its pain is far reaching. It incapacitates and weakens our resolve. It increases the size of our challenge beyond its real proportion. It is the reason we stand like ants before the giants of our challenges. It is the reason why we sit when we should stand; why we stand when we should crawl; why we crawl when we should run; or why we run when we should fly.
Someone has observed that there are 366 admonitions not to fear in the scriptures. One for each day of the year. There is even an allowance for the leap year! This is God’s way of safeguarding the dreams he has placed in each of our hearts. Our dreams are as good as dead when we allow fear to rule in our hearts.
So, face your fears – all of them – today. Refuse to bow down to its tyrannical rule. Decide to be on top of your fear. Tell yourself there is nothing to fear about today. Refuse to carry the pain of tomorrow into today. The challenges of today are enough for you than to borrow into tomorrow. Let me leave you this morning with a quotation from Franklin D. Roosevelt: in his first inaugural address as US president. He said and I quote: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.".
posted by Abiodun Fijabi at 7:27 PM
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