Escaping the Prison of Fear

Most of us can fall victim to sinful fears. It can manifest itself through fear of man, fear of being exposed, fear of intimacy or rejection from people. In this interview, Pastor Ed Buch helps shed light on how exactly fear can imprison us, and how there is hope available to conquer these fears in Jesus. (From Podcast Episode #434 - Leaving the Past Behind)

Mike: Ed Buch has joined me in the studio. Ed is the administrative manager here at Pure Life Ministries. Ed, great to see you. Thanks for coming in.

Ed: Hi Mike, I'm glad to be here.

Mike: Ed you wrote an article recently for our Ezine entitled Paralyzed by Fear. I suspect that anyone listening can think of many times in their life where fear has been an issue. We can all relate to the idea of fear. You started this article out with an interesting paragraph, juxtaposing two things about fear. Talk about that.

Ed: Maybe I should say at the outset that I've certainly had a lot of experience with fear over the years. As a child I was a very fearful individual. Especially of the dark, as many children are.

Mike: Me too! I still don't look under the bed.

Ed: Right. I still don't walk up to windows at night. So, a couple of things that stood out to me as I looked at the scriptures and my own experience side by side. When it comes to fear, one thing is that, as a human being, fear paralyzes me. I get stuck. I think that's true of all people: we are paralyzed by fear. But on the other hand, Satan our adversary is animated by fear. It is an atmosphere that he thrives in. I think he works very hard to incite and to keep immersing us in an atmosphere of fear, because that's where he can do his work to corrupt and destroy people’s lives so effectively.  

Mike: No doubt about that. Hopefully as we go through this article it will be able to help, to encourage and to give hope to people that they can get free of fear, which the enemy is so often trying to keep us in. One classic example you used of fear in the Bible, I think, was Peter.

Ed: One of the probably most well-known stories of fear in the Bible is where Peter walked on the water, (Matthew 14:22-36). While a number of the disciples were in the boat and headed across the lake, Jesus came walking across the water toward them. Their reaction was fear, so He said some reassuring things to them. Then Peter said, “Well Lord, if it's really you, invite me to come to walk on the water to you.” Jesus does that and says "Come." So, Peter gets out of the boat, I’m sure many of us have heard this story, and he loses his focus and makes a decisive error here, taking his eyes off of Jesus. As a result, he begins to see the boisterous waves and the storm around him, and he starts to sink in the water. Of course, he calls on Jesus, and Jesus reaches out His hand to him and says, "Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

Mike: This is good. Ed, you brought out that Jesus’ question there revealed a serious problem that most of us face.

Ed: Exactly. What we see here in this passage with Peter, is that fear is literally drowning faith. That is true in so many our lives. We can get stuck in unbelief. I personally have felt that at times when I was in my sexual sin. I was feeling powerless to stop the behaviors that I knew were sinful, as well as powerless to put into practice the steps I could see and read in scripture, or from other biblical materials that Jesus was inviting me to take toward that freedom. But I was paralyzed, it seemed, by the role that fear was playing in my life. That's because we're dealing with a lot of fears. I think this is very true of sexual addicts, or those dealing with sexual sin. Fear has played a huge role in our lives. Probably many are dealing with something like a fear of intimacy, a fear of emotional pain or rejection, a fear of inadequacy, just feeling insignificant and unable. Those are all things that kind of even feed and propel us into those sexual addictions.

Mike: Sure, I had a check box next to each one of those as I look back on some of the things that drew me to sexual sin. On the other side of that though you also say fear is very often the thing that hinders us from getting out of sexual sin, which fear had led us into!

Ed: Exactly. That's what I mean by fear animating Satan. So now he's got us in this trap of fear, and we say "I was propelled there by fear," and "I can't get out because now I'm afraid of getting caught or exposed, of losing my reputation, and I'm afraid of the consequences that I will have to deal with when my sin is exposed of like that." It's really a horrible trap, a pit, and many people I believe out there today might be stuck in that pit. It is my hope that they will understand that they don't have to stay there.

Mike: Well let's talk about that. You talked about how there is only one way to escape this fear-based prison, as you called it.

Ed: Yes, Mike. The only way to get out of this prison is to face our fears. Proverbs says very clearly that "the fear of the wicked will come upon him," (Proverbs 10:24). That's exactly what happens in many cases, unfortunately, as we let it go too long and the things we fear happen. In my case, my sexual sin got exposed. I was caught, and all those things that I feared came upon me. I think many people experience that. However, we can at any point make the choice to face those fears head on and overcome them. The Lord would have us do that much sooner than many of us opt to do.

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Mike: You said that coming to grips with our fears is not complicated. It may not be complicated, but if you're in the grip of fear, it very often seems elusive. How do I do that, if I find myself driven by fear, controlled by fear? What do I do with that?

Ed: In my mind Mike there's a two-pronged approach. We need to replace that fear with faith. The faith will need to come from the Word of God. There's no way around that. You need to be immersed in the Word of God. You need to be letting the Word of God take a higher place in your thinking and in your heart than the fears, and the emotions behind those fears. But at the same time, you know you mentioned that it's not complicated, it's not easy either. I don't want to minimize that, because I'm not even sure a person can do that alone. In my experience, and I think the experience of most people I'm familiar with, is it takes a group of believers who can help come alongside and help pray through on that regard, before you can really overcome fear in your life.

Mike: You closed this article about talking about the woman with the issue of blood. I think this really spoke well to the love of Jesus amid our fear. Talk about that.

Ed: Yes Mike, I think everyone's probably familiar with that account in scripture, (Luke 8:40-46). This woman had a twelve-year issue of blood, she was bound in her fear and in her uncleanness very much, just like someone bound in sexual sin. She gets just enough sight of Jesus in her desperation to reach out and touch the hem of His garment to get the healing she needs. But the reality of that story is that when she touches Him, Jesus immediately stops everything. He's on His way to heal somebody else, but He stops.

Mike: He's got quite a crowd around Him too.

Ed: Exactly. That’s what Peter said. When Jesus asked, "Who touched me?" Peter's response was: "Master, you're surrounded by this large group of people, it could have been any of us! Why do you even care?" was pretty much behind Peter's statement. When we think about that, I think the reason Jesus really did care is because He loved that woman perfectly. In that love, He understood that while she had been healed of her uncleanness, her fear remained. We see that when He finally calls her before Him, it says specifically, "She came in fear and trembled before Him." Then she confessed in that moment everything to Him, and His response in that moment was "daughter, your faith has made you well." She overcame all her fear by that faith that He drew out of her, and really imparted to her even in that very same moment.

Mike: Yes, Jesus really laid the foundation for hope in her that she did not have before. Even as you were talking about that I think of the man who was healed by the pool of the sheep gate. When he was asked "Who healed you," he didn't know who healed him. I've always loved the fact that Jesus arranged a second meeting, so that He could know who healed Him. He wanted to heal His heart. He wanted to give that man a hope, which He didn't have merely by his healing, as wonderful as that was.

Ed: That's right, yes. I think many of us today would settle for just physical healing, but God is always after something much deeper.

Mike: Yes, and much more wonderful. ‍

Ed: Yes.

Mike: Amen. Well, we appreciate you writing this article and sharing it with us today. Hopefully for those who may be experiencing fear in different ways in their life it will provide some hope to them. Jesus is not only aware of their fears, but He wants to set them free from those fears and the consequences of them.

Ed: That's right.

Mike: Ed Buch, thanks so much.

Ed: Thank you Mike, it's been a pleasure.