Max Lucado discusses 4 ways that fear negatively impacts life in Chapter 1 of his book Fearless:
1. Like the disciples in the boat with Jesus asleep during the storm, we too unleash a swarm of anger-stirring doubts.
2. We become control freaks. Fear essentially is a perceived loss of control, so we grab for a part of life we can manage.
3. Our recall is deadened. We develop spiritual amnesia, forgetting God’s goodness to us.
4. Safety becomes our god and we worhip a risk-free life, unwilling to step out in faith.
Pastor Lucado goes on to contrast fear and courage: “Fear never wrote a symphony or a poem, negotiated a peace treaty, or cured a disease. Fear never pulled a family out of poverty or a country out of bigotry. Fear never saved a marriage or a business. Courage did that. Faith did that . . . . Fear leads us into a prison and shuts the door.”
Max concludes with a prayer that when we face the seismos (quaking storms) of life, we will fear less tomorrow than we do today, and in the process not go under.
