Overcoming fear

In a crazy evil sort of way Col. Qaddafi is a very smart man. He is an expert on words that invoke fear; from his murderous threats to his own people on Libya's state television "we will find you house by house, door by door, we will find you in your closets..." to his reaction on the US as they began airstrikes on his military strongholds "You will regret intervening in our internal affairs. You are helping people on the wrong side...it will be a long war". His calculated words are spoken always with the objective of paralyzing people with fear. When people are afraid, they will fail to act, and thereby concede to his control. Qaddafi is a master manipulator who uses the Devil's fear tactics to exert power.

Although we do not fall under evil leadership like that here in the West, we are not free from the Devil's fear tactics. We too succumb to thoughts and whispers of smaller fears in our minds, rendering us inactive at just the time action is needed to right wrongs. When we standby while witnessing bullying in schools and work places, or shun certain individuals because of peer pressure and gossip we concede power to the Devil. 

Whether it is petty fear or great fear, scare tactics work as long as we are concerned only for ourselves. Fear stems from our basic instinct for self-preservation. So how can we overcome this basic instinct? Christians have this admonishment from Jesus: "If you try to hang on to your life, you will loose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it." (Matthew 16:25)  These are paradoxical words that tells us to save our lives by giving it up. Jesus himself demonstrated it by dying on the cross. His subsequent resurrection is proof that we too will have eternal life no matter what happens to our current body. Therefore we can afford to risk safety for the benefit of others--and gain enormous power over fear and those who would use it against us.