![]() Satan and his demons would love nothing more than to paralyze us with fear, because if we’re fearful, we’re not going to be witnesses for Christ. We must realize that “we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:16b-17). God wants us to be sure of His promises (John 3:16), and that nothing can separate us from His love once we’ve trusted in Christ (Rom 8:38-39). When is it sinful to live in fear and doubt? I believe it is sin when we remain in fear and doubt. If it feels like God’s is far away, then who moved? It wasn’t God! He promises that He will never, ever forsake us or leave us (Heb 13:5), just as He promised Joshua after he took over Israel’s leadership with the passing of Moses (Joshua 1), so when does fear or doubt move from occasionally to almost constant, then that is sin. We might be in a low spot with very little light around us, and feel like God has moved away from us, but God has not changed. We come out of it, like passing through a dark valley. Certainly, most of us pass through a season of doubt, but most of us don’t remain there. ![]() When that happens, it is sin because God’s Word is inspired and it is always true, and if there is anything in this world we can have no doubts about, it’s God’s Word because it’s God-breathed, and we know (or at least should know) that all things work to our good, even if it doesn’t feel like it (Rom 8:28). The more difficult his life became, the more he began to doubt God, and even worse, he began to doubt God’s Word, the Bible. One man I counseled had gone through so much grief that he was certain God did not exist. For example, I get emails all the time that say I’ve won the lotter, but I have great doubts about that because who wins the lottery by not playing it? Those types of phishing schemes are highly doubtful, so doubting is not sin in itself, but when that doubt begins to creep in about the things of God, then it can be a problem. A “spirit of fear is not.” Fearing anything or anyone else but God is sin. Fear is the near opposite of trust, just as doubt is the opposite of certainty, but “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7), so fearing God is good. The time when fear is bad is when we fear the unknown future and what it holds and not trusting God with it. ![]() Fearing God means having a high view of God and His Word, so “the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding” (Job 28:28), so Solomon’s advice is, “Be not wise in your own eyes fear the LORD, and turn away from evil” (Prov 3:7). For example, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight” (Prov 9:10), so fearing God is a good thing, but the fear of the Lord is not fearing God’s wrath or judgment, but of a deep, reverential respect for God and His Word, the Bible. When we’re climbing a ladder, it’s good to make sure of our footing, but the best fear is to fear God. Does the Bible say that having fear and doubt is sin? If so, what can we do to rid ourselves of both fear and doubt? Fear
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