When we experience fear and allow it to drive us to prayer
and worship we know we are operating in faith, while fear that drives us to
indifference, numbness, panic and living independently from God is of the
flesh. When we feel fear, God has designed for us to run to him in full speed,
to stand in his presence and to present our requests as we’re standing on his
promises in his gift of faith. When we experience fear and we’re trusting God,
this leads us to call for a holy fast, where we rend our hearts before him and
cry out for his help and deliverance.
Fleshly fear will never go expectantly before
the throne of grace hoping to receive help and mercy in our time of need (Heb 4:16). It
will go to others to vent and worry. It will go inward to stew and meditate on
the trouble. God knows that we will feel fear, that we will be afraid when
armies surround us on every side. But he wants us to run to him, to stand on
his promises and to cry out to him in faith (1 Pet 5:7). The flesh says that either God is
not going to help or that we’ve got this. The Spirit reminds us that apart from
God’s help and the prayers of others we cannot fight the enemy (Ps 94:17; 2 Cor 1:11).
The Spirit always moves us to run to the Father and to call others to stand with us in this place
of expectant prayer and worship.
"Jehoshaphat was alarmed and set his face to seek the LORD. And he proclaimed a fast throughout Judah. So the people of Judah gathered to seek the LORD, and indeed, they came from all the cities of Judah to seek Him" (2 Chron 20:3)
