FEAR NOT

Phobia’s Funny Bone - Phillip Cimei

“For God, did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7 NHEB

This was no ordinary Sunday dinner. My mother interrupted it with a leap up on the kitchen chair. Her bobcat like grace and manners befitting a raccoon startled me.

“Mom, what…– “ 

“Oh my…get it out…look…there!” A little mouse scurried frantically along the wall and vanished under the refrigerator.
Fear is debilitating at times, and at other times the catalyst that dethrones our dignity. I asked my mother, “Why are you so afraid of a little mouse?”

“As a child in England, while on the porcelain throne, a rat jumped up on my lap, over my shoulder, and into a hole in the wall.”

I immediately understood. At age six, I ran into an enormous spider web—almost kissed a black and yellow banana spider. Funny to some, not me.

The scriptures encourage us to, “fear not, for I am with you…” Isaiah 41:10 NKJV, and “If God is for us, who (or what) can be against us…” Romans 8:31 KJV. 

We think these verses only refer to fearing harm from enemies, persecution as God’s children, death or judgment. But as a parent comforts their child that wants the light left on at night, God will not ignore the smallest fear. 

Isaiah 41:13 NIV, states, “I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you ‘Fear not, I will help you.’”
Of course, He might giggle a little if you have been inflicted with the dreaded Arachibutyrophobia, or better known as “fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.”