BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

A Coward Named Fear James 4:7 tells us, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Since the devil is at the root of all fear, we can say, “Resist fear and fear will flee from you.” One dictionary defines flee as “running away as in terror.” Remember the bully in school? As long as we allowed him to intimidate us, we were paralyzed. But the moment we challenged him and won, he backed off. We discovered that down deep, he was a coward. Fear is a bully—and a coward. Unchallenged, the bully will have his way. To effectively defeat him, you will have to stand toe-to-toe, face to face and eye to eye with him. You will have to confront him, resist him, oppose him, attack him. The "New English Bible" translation of James 4:7 says for us to “stand up to the devil and he will turn and run.” Think about David and Goliath. Goliath had the entire army of Israel frozen in a state of fear—until David showed up. David stood toe-to-toe, face to face and eye to eye with fear himself. His covenant was his defense; his words were his weapons. Fear was confronted and defeated—its head was removed. As a result, the Philistine army turned coward and ran in terror. David put fear on the run. Satan came to terrorize Jesus in a desert confrontation. He waited until Jesus fasted 40 days, thinking he would hit Him at His weakest moment. Not so. Jesus confronted the temptations with the most powerful weapon against fear—His faith-filled words. “It is written!” “It is written!” “It is said!” “And when [fear] had ended all the temptation, he departed from Him for a season” (Luke 4:13, "21st Century King James Version"). That coward ran in terror. Why? Because Jesus stood against him. Toe-to-toe. Face to face. Eye to eye. Jesus stood up in the boat during the storm and confronted fear. “Peace, be still” (Mark 4:39). Jesus stood up against death and confronted the evil report to Jairus. “Fear not. Believe only” (Luke 8:50). Jesus stood up to a legion of devils running toward Him at Gadara. “Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit” (Mark 5:8). Jesus confronted and resisted fear. He put fear on the run with His greatest weapon—words. You and I confront and resist fear the very same way, by speaking faith-filled words. The understood subject of James 4:7 is the word you. You resist fear and fear will turn and run. Let me paraphrase Mark 11:22-23: “Have faith in the Love of God which casts out all fear. Whosoever shall stand up to fear and say, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea, and shall believe that what he says shall come to pass, he will be entirely free from fear.” You and I have the same authority Jesus had to speak to fear. Our faith-filled words will pick up fear and cast it into the sea. Think about the professional wrestlers you may have seen on TV. The champion picks up his opponent and throws him out of the ring. Got the picture? When we speak to fear, we do the very same thing. Our words eat away at fear’s life force. We chew it up and spit it out with our words. Sound crude? Just read my paraphrased version of Isaiah 41:15: “Beloved, I will make you to be a new, sharp, threshing instrument which has teeth (sounds like our mouths). You shall thresh fear and beat it small. You shall make fear like chaff. You shall winnow fear and the wind shall carry it away. The whirlwind shall scatter fear and you will rejoice in The LORD. You shall glory in the Holy One of Israel.” Showdown in Guatemala I remember full well the day my wife, Terri, and I confronted and resisted a paralyzing onslaught of fear, and won! Except this time, it didn’t happen while reading the cover of a newspaper in my mother’s living room. It happened while lying face down on a remote road in Guatemala, caught in a firefight between communist guerrillas and Guatemalan military. BVOV : 23

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