Bob Hamp

Fear.  It is a gripping force.  It comes in degrees, and the stronger the fear the more intensely it controls us.  Fear can bring a physiological change to our organs and our musculature.  It can literally change our respiratory processes.  It becomes a filter through which all following input must pass.  It changes the processes of our minds, and becomes the force by which we are moved.  An anxiety attack is often experienced as a paralyzing force which dominates every other facet of our experience.

Fear is a relationship between us, and the object of our fear,  granting that object control over our minds, our hearts, our physiology and the impulses that move our lives.  Fear is a force that allows the object of our fear to inform us about all other forces.

Fear becomes both navigator and driver. It is engine and gasoline.  Fear grants absolute sway over our entire being to something “not us”.

Fear is hierarchical, meaning that one far can displace another.  Fear of burning will overpower the fear of falling, which can move one to jump from a height previously unimaginable.

What if you granted that power, that sway, that influence, to a singular Source.  And what if that Source loved you and actually had all power.  If the object of your fear was the controlling Force of the universe, that kind of driving impulse would actually align you with the central Truth of Life and Reality.

That kind of control would filter all input into your mind and heart, and would subject all other fear objects to the One Central object of fear.  It seems as if Fear, used rightly could actually be a benevolent force transforming all it touches.

You might even say that if you fear God, you begin a new path and plant a new seed completely   saturated with a new and eternal way of seeing things.  You might even say that…the Bible does.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.

Proverbs 9:10