What the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks?

Back in the day, four letter words were few and far between.  Saying the “h” word, the “f” word, the “s” word, the “d” word was so taboo.  Never would anyone dream of saying these words out loud, let alone in a regular conversation.  Talking like that as a little kid might get you an hour or two sucking on a bar of soap like it was ice cream.  And daddy’s little daughter would never have a chance with the “bad boy” down the street using that kind of language.  Nowadays, if you aren’t saying these words, you are almost looked at funny.  Like an outcast.  It’s become “normal” everyday language.

Enter another four letter word:

F-E-A-R

We have become so accustomed to these bad words, but I believe we have also become accustomed to fear.  And who’s to blame.  The news, movies, TV shows, every source of social media, and even, heaven forbid, our friends and family seem to thrive on feeding this to us.  Watch the news for 5 minutes and you will see all sorts of stories that impede fear, destruction, or highlight something that is going wrong with the world today.  Movie producers almost get giddy on putting together the scariest movies and feel accomplished if they’ve been able to scare the audience.  There is a whole category reserved for these.  TV shows…Obsessed or Fear Factor anyone?  People post or tweet about it.  Family and friends get together and talk about it over coffee, like it’s something we just normally include in everyday conversations.

We say “they’re just words and we’re just talking, it’s no big deal.”  But are they REALLY “just words”?

God has a lot to say about our words.  One of my favorite books of the Bible, James, talks about the tongue and our words.  He tells us that our tongue is untamable and this little thing can direct the whole body, ultimately causing major damage.  James compares it to a bridle in a horses’ mouth and a rudder on a ship.  Those small pieces cause the whole body to shift.  In the same way, our tongue can either bless our Father or curse man.  “Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing” James 3:10.  But what we speak is really a matter of the heart…

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of Vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.  A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things”  Matthew 12:33-35.  Later in Matthew 15:18, it says that “those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.”  The tree is our heart, the fruit are words from our mouth.  Blessings or cursings.

What we are speaking is what is in our hearts.  If there is good in our hearts, blessings will come out.  If there is bad in our hearts, cursings will come out.  If there is fear in our hearts, we will be speaking of fear.  When there is fear in our hearts, we are really telling God that we don’t trust Him.

But God also has a lot to say about fear.  Depending on who you ask, what version you use, or how you categorize the verses, there are 365, or more, times in the Bible that mentions God telling us to “fear not,” leading us to look up a new one for everyday of the year.  Which, let’s be honest, really cool and another reason I don’t think our God is coincidental.  He knows what He’s doing.  He doesn’t make things complicated for us.  We make things complicated for ourselves.

God did not intend for us to be in fear…either living in it or talking it like it’s no big deal.  “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” 2 Timothy 1:7.  Look up some key verses that talk about fear and what God has to say about it.  Memorize one a day, or week, and speak it over and over.  Write it on your heart.  Soon your F-E-A-R will be replaced with other FOUR letter words:

     HOPE                        LOVE                               LIFE

  CALM                     SANE                       LIVE                     PURE

                                   WORD

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1

For the God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

 

 

 

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