Replacing Fear
With Good Cheer!
Jerry Seinfeld
spoke about fear. He said, “According to most studies, people’s number one fear
is of public speaking. Number two is death. Does that sound right? This means to
the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better off in the casket
than doing the eulogy.” Fear is a real deal.
Human beings fear many different things. A website called
PsychCentral
(psychcentral.com) states there are over 200 recognized
phobias. They range from arachnophobia (fear of spiders) to decidophobia (fear
of making decisions) to didaskaleinophobia (fear of going to school!) to
testophobia (fear of tests) and even bibliophobia (fear of books). Many men,
and some women too, have pentherophobia (fear of one’s mother-in-law)! People
can be afraid of just about any and every thing on earth. Matthew 14:25-26
tells about a dark, stormy night on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus’ apostles
experienced phasmophobia, that is the fear of ghosts! In the aforementioned
verses Jesus walks atop heavy waves toward the wind-bounced boat the apostles
are in. Matthew records in verses 25-26, “Now in the fourth watch of the night
[about 3 a. m.] Jesus went to them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples
saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, ‘It is a ghost!’ and
they cried out for fear.” The rest of the narrative relates how Peter got out
of the boat, starting walking to Jesus on the water, then became afraid and
began to sink until Jesus grabbed him after he cried out, “Lord, save me!”
Jesus apparently helped him back into the boat. Matthew, who would have been in
the boat that terrifying night, writes, “Then those who were in the boat came
and worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly You are the Son of God’ ” (verse 33). What
would you have said?!
What storm or
ghost frightens you today? A New Yorker cartoon suggests even thieves and
crooks are scared. The cartoon showed a very cared masked burglar rousing a
couple from sleep in their up-stairs bedroom. The caption reads, “Wake up, wake
up. There’s a noise downstairs, and it’s not me.” The people who were afraid in
Matthew 14 were apostles! They were scared to death when they saw Jesus walking
on the water (vs 26) . They thought He was a ghost, for crying out loud – a bad
case of phasmophobia. They remind us that even those who are most intimate and
familiar with Jesus may at times find themselves in fear- producing
circumstances in life. Fears about debt, disease, and death.
Fears about health and healthcare and health insurance.
Fears about work and fears about retirement. Fears about the future as well as
the past. Fears about violent our
families and our finances. Fears about the church and about our kids and fears
about getting old. As you think about your fears remember this – the ghost that
struck such fear into the apostles that night turned out to not be a ghost at
all – it was Jesus, and He was walking on top of the very waves that were
threatening to sink them! When they cried out for fear, Matthew writes in verse
27, “Immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘Be of good cheer! It is I; do
not be afraid.”
The storms of life can truly be frightening at times, but
the presence of Christ makes a real difference when our boat is being tossed.
If Jesus expected His apostles – in a boat, in the middle of a storm, in the
middle of the sea, in the middle of the night – if Jesus expected them to
replace fear with “good cheer” (courage), what would He expect of us as we face
our storms? Replace fear with good cheer!
--by Dan Gulley,
Smithville, TN
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