Fear Mask

Psalm 27:1-5

The LORD is my light and my salvation—
   whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—  of whom shall I be afraid?

 ² When the wicked advance against me    to devour^[a] me, it is my enemies and my foes
   who will stumble and fall. ³ Though an army besiege me,    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,    even then I will be confident. ⁴ One thing I ask from the LORD,
   this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD    all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD    and to seek him in his temple. ⁵ For in the day of trouble
   he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent    and set me high upon a rock. 

Suppose you had the biggest strongest kid in school walking by your side everywhere you go. He walks with you in the hallways, to your locker, even walks you to lunch. Having this; would you  be afraid of potential bullies? Would a bully try to mess with you when the big kid is by your side? Probably not...but that bully would most likely wait for an opportunity to come at you when your big friend is not around. So what strategy could he use? He could probably use every opportunity he gets to cause you to walk away from your robust pal and right into his territory. 

Same works for the spiritual realm. There is one Mask till this day, I have a problem taking off. It's my Fearful Mask. My fearful Mask will tell me, "If God protects, why did he let your friend die at an early age."  "If God  protects why would he allow an abuser to hurt an innocent child?" "Why would he allow a Missionary in Africa be killed and beaten for spreading the gospel."  Why? You know what...I have no idea why...I cannot think of one good answer for any of those questions. I only have facts. The fact is we live in a fallen world, with fallen people; and if God prevented every bad thing from happening that would be great. The truth is however, he doesn't ...so what? does he pick and choose who to save? That's not fair right? So if that's the case I don't think I want to step out and do big things because God is unfair and unjust, and I'm just  going to put my Fearful Mask back on and crawl in my little  corner and eat bon bons...right?- Do you know what just happened now my friend? The bully was able to lure me away from my big protecting pal, and I'm right in his territory.

Truthfully speaking, the Fearful Mask may take a lifetime to take off completely. When my Fearful Mask is on I am able to make excuses for not achieving certain dream and goals. My Fearful Mask will hold me back from new relationships, new places, new opportunities. My Fearful Mask will stop me from letting go of past hurts and pains.  When I shake my fist at God and completely disregard the things he would like me to do, just because I am fearful. It's like me turning to that strong protective pal, and saying "I'm gonna go in that dark alley alone without you, because you might let me down!" 

Let's try to remove our Fearful Masks today. For one day at a time. Let's walk hand in hand with our strong Robust friend and say, "hey, I don't know whats gonna happen today but I'm glad your by my side."