Conquer Your Fears!
THIS is a frightening age. Terror and calamity rule with a high hand. Fear seems as common as evil and pain, as inescapable as sorrow and death. From childhood to the grave the black shadows of fear and worry, in one grotesque shape or another, pursue earth’s inhabitants. Some fear the darkness and all its real or imaginary evils. The East fears the West, the West the East. The rich fear a financial crash and poverty. The poor fear unemployment and starvation. So it goes.
The problems of living from one day to the next, also the memories and experiences of the past, cause fear of the future. The homeless, the orphans and widows of bombed and battle-scarred Europe are living testimony of a past reign of fear. The memory of Hitler and Mussolini is vividly and inerasably engraved in the minds of millions, the horrors and stench of concentration camps are branded in their flesh and linger in their nostrils. Is it any wonder that freedom-loving people fear that totalitarianism will overtake them?
Such names as White Sands, N. Mex., Bikini Island, Hiroshima and Nagasaki have raised up new fears to plague the minds of men. Look at the future, the plans and preparations for even greater sacrifices to the god of slaughter. What a horrible sight, all-out atomic warfare! Little wonder politicians and statesmen are trembling and are terrified with fear. The military leaders are fearful; the financiers are fearful; the priests and ministers of organized religion are fearful. Listen to their warnings, their outcries of terror, their wails and howling over what they see coming! It is just as the Scripture says it would be: ‘Men becoming faint out of fear and expectation of the things they see coming upon the inhabitants of the earth.’—Luke 21:26, NW.
Fear has carved cruel furrows in the faces of men, has turned heads gray, bleached others white, caused much premature baldness. Fear makes the knees to shake, the hands to tremble, the confident step to slow down and falter. Fear brings mental fatigue, misery, pain and sorrow. Fear often kills. It is therefore not natural for men to live in constant fear. By nature man was not made to be shackled in chains of fear. He was not created to live in a pressure box of propaganda, there to have his nerves constantly bombarded in a cold war. Neither was he created to be torn to pieces in a hot war of atomic bombs and bloodshed. Intelligent, thinking people want to live, not die. More than that, they want to live in peace, mentally and physically, far away from bomb shelters, ammunition dumps, machine-gun nests and barbed-wire enclosures. And so it is only natural for man to put up a hard fight to conquer the causes of his fears.
The last two global wars were fought presumably to remedy the basic cause for fears. But alas! Instead of conquering these fears the great wars gave birth to new ones. Likewise, the conferences, treaties, peace pacts and alliances since 1945 have all failed to establish genuine freedom from fear. Notwithstanding the dramatic efforts of the United Nations to blot out fear and make the world a cozy family, the world is sicker with the jitters than ever.
Science also has attempted to conquer fear. But what a miserable failure it has been! Credit for the modern tanks, warships, guided missiles, flame throwers, atomic bombs and biological weapons goes to science. Around the neck of science hangs the laurels for reducing London, Berlin, Hamburg and hundreds of other cities to piles of rubble. To science goes the glory for the gutted cities, the maimed soldiers, the tortured women and children, the death of millions. Certainly it will take science a long, long time to save as many lives as it has destroyed and may yet destroy in this present generation. Science is by no means the conqueror, but rather the creator, of fear. How true the saying, the scientific, social, political, commercial, military and religious leaders of this world promise the people freedom from fear, while at the same time they themselves are slaves of corruption and fear!—2 Pet. 2:19, NW.
Now, is there no remedy? No escape from these killing and fearful conditions? Indeed there is, but not in the schemes of men. The great Teacher, Christ Jesus, extends the invitation: “Come to me, all you who are toiling and loaded down, and I will refresh you.” (Matt. 11:28, NW) All who will sincerely accept this extension of mercy will have great peace of mind. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” (Isa. 26:3) Such ones take up the song and jubilantly sing: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear.” “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid: for Jehovah, even Jehovah, is my strength and song; and he is become my salvation.”—Ps. 46:1, 2; Isa. 12:2, AS.
If you put full trust and confidence in Jehovah God, and refuse to rely on princely leaders of men or their armored chariots of war, you will not worry over world conditions or the threat of another global war. These are faithful sayings: “The fear of man bringeth a snare; but whoso putteth his trust in Jehovah shall be safe.” “In God have I put my trust, I will not be afraid; what can man do unto me?” (Ps. 146:3; Isa. 31:1; Prov. 29:25; Ps. 56:11, AS) By exercising faith in Jehovah and exhibiting love for his kingdom, you can conquer all worldly fears. “This is the conquest that has conquered the world, our faith.” “There is no fear in love, but perfect love throws fear outside, because fear exercises a restraint. Indeed, he that is under fear has not been made perfect in love.”—1 John 5:4; 4:18, NW.
Here is another secret for successfully overcoming worry: “The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom.” (Ps. 111:10, AS) If you fear this Most High and Lofty One you will study his precious Word the Bible and you will obey his righteous commandments. “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32, NW) In turn, this not only will give you peace of mind now, but will lead you toward the new system of things which will shortly replace the present, where boundless freedom from every sort of fear will be yours forever and ever.
Just think of it! No more sighing, no more crying, no more dying. No fear of cold and hot wars. No fear of inflations or depressions. A beautiful paradise full of peace, goodness, love and joy. A new world over which Jehovah God will reign supreme! Hope placed in such removes all fear over the collapse and destruction of the present satanic system.