In the eye of the storm, You remain in control
In the middle of the war, You guard my soul
You alone are the anchor, when my sails are torn
Your love surrounds me
In the eye of the storm
- Ryan Stephenson, Eye of the Storm
It is amazing that persons who have confessed to being Christians are sometimes more fearful than sinners. They will jump at their own shadows, things happening around them make them prisoners in their own homes, and they live a life of constant worry, causing unnecessary stress on themselves.
Interestingly, while some unsaved are philosophical about the COVID-19 threat, many believers sit and worry, even to the point of being obsessive in the sanitisation process.
Long before there was a restriction on social gatherings, some Christians had started to practise it, driven, no doubt by the fear of ‘catching something’ from the ‘wrong’ person.
Whether paranoia, practising safety measures, or just plain taking fear to unnecessary heights, is something wrong with their salvation?
Family and Religion put the question to Rev Dwight Bryan of the Dominion in Christ Church International, who pointed out that in the best of times, fear has always dogged human beings, and especially at times like now when the world is battling the dreaded coronavirus pandemic, the fear is probably at an all-time high.
“In these challenging times when news of doom and gloom fills the airwaves, it is so easy to be afraid. This is a true even for believers. Because being afraid is such a part of the human existence, it is not surprising when a Christian gives in to it and assumes that being fearful is just a normal part of life for some of us,” he notes.
According to Bryan, the fear of coronavirus and other alarming things all have their roots in the enemy’s constant assault to manipulate, control, and defeat us.
Bryan notes that it would seem to be a contradiction that someone who professes to be a believer and has trusted the Lord is plagued by constantly being afraid of the unknown or of being caught in the numbers of infected cases. He notes that one might be even tempted to question the salvation of this believer.
“When we surrender our lives to the Lord, our spirit is born again instantaneously. However, our soul, comprising our intellect, will, and emotions, needs to be surrendered to the Lord for His ongoing work of transformation and renewal. We have to grow in our faith in order to flush out fear. Fear connects us to the Devil in much the same way that faith connects us to God,” he said.
“In Job 3:25, Job confesses, ‘For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me’. The irony is that harbouring fear actually draws the thing we fear towards us like a magnet attracting iron filings,” he stressed.
Bryan noted that it is all right to be afraid as the situation is, after all, dire and one is human. However, he said that in the same way Jesus calmed the storm when the disciples thought they were going to drown, Christians can expect their tumultuous thoughts to be calmed by the Lord.
Bryan is encouraging Christians to put fear aside, knowing that God has ultimate control over all things – including coronavirus - and He can protect His children.