It is written in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Well then, where is all this fear coming from concerning the economy and COVID-19? This I can tell you for sure: it ISN’T coming from God! Every time something goes “bump” in the night, someone is going to stir up fear, if it isn’t the devil, then it’s your friends or family.

Fear has been with us ever since RIGHT AFTER the devil deceived Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. The first instance of fear is in Genesis 3:8-11,
8 And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.
9 And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

Thus started the work of the spirit of fear in the world, and it’s been working ever since. Maybe you can remember the first time you were scared out of your wits, maybe it’s as clear today as when it happened, perhaps when you were just a child.

What does fear do? Well, for one thing, it robs your joy, then it stops you from doing the things you did before without hesitation. Maybe as a child you loved climbing trees, but the first time you fell, you probably didn’t climb any more trees. I fell out of a tree once, and it was hard to ever climb one again, yet before that I’d climb with no fear, and enjoyed looking down on the world. Fear does terrible things to a person, it robs you of things you love to enjoy.

I love to fly, and the first time I soloed, when I came in for a landing, an unexpected side wind picked up my left wing and nearly cartwheeled the plane. In that second I forgot all I’d been taught, and panicked, and to this day I remember how scared I was as I was regaining control of the plane. When I came back around to land, I was still shaking, although it was the best landing I ever did, never even felt the plane touch the ground. My flying days were DONE!

My flight instructor came up to me, having seen the whole thing, and told me to get back up there and fly again, and of course, I didn’t want to. He told me not to let fear stop me from doing what I loved so much. Reluctantly, I got back in and took the plane out for a couple hours until I was once again grinning from ear to ear. He told me that he was amazed that I got the plane back under control, considering the severity of the situation, he said my wings were actually vertical for a couple seconds. But in reality, he had trained me well. I just forgot it for a few seconds. And yes, I continued to fly after that.

When something like this COVID-19 strikes, we tend to forget what we’ve been taught from the Word of God. We may have cruised through life full of confidence, until something like this comes along, and WHAM! We’re flat on our back, wondering how we got that way, and are afraid to get up again, lest we get knocked back down again. That’s exactly how fear works. I’ve been hearing it from brothers and sisters in Christ, who I thought were rock solid. But having experienced fear, yes, PANIC, in my own life, I found that if you get back up, even if you’re scared, you’ve already won the battle.

God has given us His Word to train us, and if we’re paying attention, we will know we’re not going to be able to cruise through life unopposed. The devil will attack us to get the Word of God out of us, or at least render it ineffective, to where we tuck and hide and keep our head down. Yes, it is written in Proverbs 22:3 and again in 27:12, “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on and are punished.” But please note, it does NOT say, “A FEARFUL man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself…..” There is a difference between prudence, and outright fear. God gives us His Holy Spirit to know the difference. There’s nothing wrong with ducking when someone is shooting at you, but don’t let fear keep you from shooting back! God has your back!

It is written in Proverbs 24:16, “For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief.” God’s number for “complete” is seven. A just man can fall “completely”, and yet rise up again. But the wicked shall fall into trouble. No matter how many times you fear, or even panic, if you get back up after being knocked down, YOU WIN! People have asked war heroes, “Weren’t you scared?” And they will usually admit, yes they were scared, but they did it anyway. You see, that’s the difference between winners and losers. Winners get scared too, but they do it anyway. They won’t let the spirit of fear stop them!

In all this shutdown from COVID-19, get rid of your fear. Don’t let it paralyze your life into merely and “existence”, as many have done. Yes, jobs have been lost, yes, people have died. But YOU haven’t died, have you? God will keep His own children safe. Your job is to make sure YOU are one of HIS children, and stop worrying, and let God be God, amen? Be prudent, and do what you know to do, and let God do for you what you don’t know how to. This earthly life is not how you will spend eternity. You will spend it in a glorified body of God’s design.

This earthly vessel called your body is subject to death, BUT, if you’re in Christ Jesus, when the time comes, you will simply CONTINUE living the everlasting life you entered when Christ Jesus, Y’shua Messiah, became your LORD and Savior. You will simply step out of the earthly realm into the heavenly realm. Here, let Jesus explain it: It is written in John 11:25-26,
25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
26 And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?

If you believe Him, you have NOTHING to fear about ANYTHING WHATSOEVER! And if you DON’T believe him, it’s time you changed your mind and get saved. If you belong to Jesus, you can honestly say, NO FEAR LIVES HERE!