Fear, Faith’s Byproduct

Exodus 1:21
“And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses.”

The verse above occurred during the time of a very evil Pharaoh in Egypt. Pharaoh hated God’s people. He saw God’s blessings on them, and he became fearful that they would overtake his country and remove him from power. His only solution to what he saw as a problem was that he ordered every male baby that was born to be killed.

However, as much as people feared this Pharaoh, there were some people who had a greater fear of God. The midwives feared God more than they feared Pharaoh, which resulted in them keeping the young male babies alive. We often praise the midwives for their actions, but we don’t follow their example when we are faced with fear.

The verse above cannot be entirely understood without reading verse 17 which says, “But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.” Verse 17 shows the faith of these midwives. The faith of the midwives produced a fear of God. In other words, their faith moved their fear from man to God. Because they had enough faith that God could protect them, they chose to fear God more than they feared Pharaoh. This resulted in God’s blessings on their lives.

You cannot live your life without fear because God made us with fear as a protective measure from things that can hurt us. However, fear can only be put into its proper place by faith. Faith moves your fear from man to God, which results in God’s blessings. The fact that you have fear is not the problem; it is the fact that you fear the wrong thing or the wrong person. The person you are to fear is God.

It all comes down to living a life of faith. Fear and faith cannot be separated. It is simply where you choose to place your fear that determines what God can do with your faith. Faith over fear causes you to trust God more than man. Fear over faith causes you to fear man over God.

Your faith is exposed by your fear. You show me who you fear the most and I will show you in whom or in what you place your faith. If you place your faith in money, you will fear to trust God with your money and hoard it for yourself. If you place your faith in God, you will trust God to invest your money in Him. If your faith is in mankind, you will fear what mankind will do to you if you don’t do what they tell you to do; however, if you place your faith in God, you will fear not to obey God in spite of what mankind may threaten to do to you.

My friend, it truly comes down to living a life of faith. If you want to stop living a life of fear, then you must place your faith in God and let faith place your fear in God. You will never get control of your fear until you learn to live by faith because faith always places fear in God. Certainly, faith is a scary thing to do, but when has God ever let you down? The voice of fear may tell you that you are crazy to do what God wants you to do, but if you will trust your faith in God, it will put your fear in its proper place which is having a fear of God.

The question I have for you is this, does your life practice fear over faith, or does it exercise faith over fear? Fear will always control your life, but if you live by faith, faith will place your fear in God, which will cause God to be in control of your life.

Author: Allen Domelle