‘For some people sexual lust may be a fluctuating temptation; sometimes the battle may seem fearce, sometimes other battles may seem more urgent. But for someone introduced to pornography, the battle may seem constant. Such a person may have to enlist consistent prayer support and be prepared to fight the battle daily. In a similar way, those who have been threatened, attacked or shamed by others tend to be more vulnerable to the fear of man, and they have to be especially vigilant. ‘ p.52
Step 2: Identify where your fear of man has been intensified by peopel in your past.
Words can damage. Reckless words pierce like a sword.
Abraham was very fearful of man. Lied twice to save his own skin but then learns to control fear, he is even willing to offer to sacrifice Isaac. He fears God more than he fears losing his son. It was a big problem for the people of Israel so God has to constantly help them not to fear man but to fear him.
Two great examples are Joshua and David. David is a great example of someone who overcame. He was scared at times but that fear did not dominate his life. Ps 27:1-4, if you can read those words and it expresses the desire of your heart then you do not fear man.
Then long case example of Janet. She has sinned herself and she needs to deal with that in repentance and trust in Christ’s death. However she has been sinned against and that is harder. She needs to see how his death has dealt with her shame.
‘It will be difficult for her to believe the extent of God’s grace. She will constantly be looking at herself and her sense of unworthiness and filthiness, and she will try to hide from the Holy One. But she must believe. She must believe in the words of Christ more than she believes in anything else. She must follow the principle: For every one look at myself I must take ten looks at Jesus. She must meditate on these loving promises from the mouth of God. If she thinks she is beyond grace she should be corrected. Such thinking is based on the unbliblical assuption that our works can either keep us away from God or move us toward him. It is a denial of grace itself. It suggests that there is some righteous act she must perform in order to meet God halfway. This however has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus. The gospel is only available to people who know they are unclean.’ p.67-68
She also has a fear of threat. The answer to that is not necessarily to do a study on the sovereignty of God. Her problem may not be believing that God is POWERFUL but that he is GOOD. ‘She does not believe that God can be trusted with her life and so she has turned to other people for safety and security. The way out is to confess that she has been busy needing other people for her own faithless purposes.’ p.69
Jer 17:5-8 expresses the cross roads that we all stand at between the fear of man and the fear of God.
Finally think about Matt 10:28: ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.’ If we can counter such a severe threat with the fear of the Lord, then threats such as rejection would not be such lethal blows.
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