Are Monsters Afraid of You?
By J.B. Hixson, Ph.D.
01/03/2022
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear...” (2 Tim 1:7)
One of my all-time favorite children’s movies is the Disney/Pixar movie Monsters, Inc. Every time we watch it as a family I laugh all the way through it. Similar to the Toy Story movies, this movie takes you back to your childhood days and invokes warm memories of what it was like to be a kid.
The premise of Monsters, Inc. is cute. The land of monsters derives its energy from the screams of children. Each night monsters jump out of closets in children’s bedrooms and capture their screams in a vacuum-like container. Then they bring the screams back to the factory (“Monsters, Inc.”) where they are converted into energy to light the city.
There's a twist, however. It turns out the monsters are more scared of the kids than the kids are of them! When one of the monsters inadvertently brings a child back with him to the land of monsters, the whole city panics. I will not spoil the ending but rest assured both monsters and kids live happily ever after.
This movie begs the question: How many of our fears are really legitimate? Even adults struggle with fear. We may not fear the boogieman, but we have our own monsters to worry about. Maybe it is the fear of failure. Or the fear of the future. Or financial fears, health fears, fears related to our children, etc.
We need to be reminded, “God has not given us a spirit of fear” (2 Tim 1:7). Fear is one of the devil's chief weapons. His goal is to keep Christians defeated so that we are unproductive in our Christian lives. The way he keeps us defeated is through such weapons as guilt, doubt, and fear. When we fear, we are in essence saying that we think God is not capable of protecting us or providing for us. Fear ultimately signifies a lack of faith. Doubt and fear are twin evils.
Sometimes I think the devil just sits back and laughs as he watches God's children struggle with fear and doubt. He knows that we have no reason to fear him. And we should know it too. We have within us a power that is far greater than any of the devil's powers. “Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). In reality the devil should be scared of us, not the other way around!
James tells us that when we resist the devil, he flees from us (James 4:7). Too many Christians spend time fleeing from the devil and his weapons instead of using the resurrection power within us to send him scampering off with his proverbial tail between his legs.
Let me encourage you to take the offensive in the battle with your fears. Do not let them control you. Read God's Word daily, particularly the Psalms, and allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen and nourish your spirit. You will soon be reminded of just how much God loves you and just how secure we are in Christ. Then when those pesky fears crop up in your mind, you will be the one laughing, not the devil.
01/03/2022
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear...” (2 Tim 1:7)
One of my all-time favorite children’s movies is the Disney/Pixar movie Monsters, Inc. Every time we watch it as a family I laugh all the way through it. Similar to the Toy Story movies, this movie takes you back to your childhood days and invokes warm memories of what it was like to be a kid.
The premise of Monsters, Inc. is cute. The land of monsters derives its energy from the screams of children. Each night monsters jump out of closets in children’s bedrooms and capture their screams in a vacuum-like container. Then they bring the screams back to the factory (“Monsters, Inc.”) where they are converted into energy to light the city.
There's a twist, however. It turns out the monsters are more scared of the kids than the kids are of them! When one of the monsters inadvertently brings a child back with him to the land of monsters, the whole city panics. I will not spoil the ending but rest assured both monsters and kids live happily ever after.
This movie begs the question: How many of our fears are really legitimate? Even adults struggle with fear. We may not fear the boogieman, but we have our own monsters to worry about. Maybe it is the fear of failure. Or the fear of the future. Or financial fears, health fears, fears related to our children, etc.
We need to be reminded, “God has not given us a spirit of fear” (2 Tim 1:7). Fear is one of the devil's chief weapons. His goal is to keep Christians defeated so that we are unproductive in our Christian lives. The way he keeps us defeated is through such weapons as guilt, doubt, and fear. When we fear, we are in essence saying that we think God is not capable of protecting us or providing for us. Fear ultimately signifies a lack of faith. Doubt and fear are twin evils.
Sometimes I think the devil just sits back and laughs as he watches God's children struggle with fear and doubt. He knows that we have no reason to fear him. And we should know it too. We have within us a power that is far greater than any of the devil's powers. “Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). In reality the devil should be scared of us, not the other way around!
James tells us that when we resist the devil, he flees from us (James 4:7). Too many Christians spend time fleeing from the devil and his weapons instead of using the resurrection power within us to send him scampering off with his proverbial tail between his legs.
Let me encourage you to take the offensive in the battle with your fears. Do not let them control you. Read God's Word daily, particularly the Psalms, and allow the Holy Spirit to strengthen and nourish your spirit. You will soon be reminded of just how much God loves you and just how secure we are in Christ. Then when those pesky fears crop up in your mind, you will be the one laughing, not the devil.
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