COURAGE TO RUN
- DAY 362
- FEAR FILE: JOSEPH
- SCRIPTURES: Matthew 2
Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt,
Psychologically there are ways we respond in fearful situations or to any stressor. It’s popularly called the fight or flight response but it is actually four responses not just two
- Flight – you run away from your fears.
- Fight – you confront your fears.
- Freeze – you are unable to act or respond.
- Fawn – When all else fails, you negotiate your way out of the situation.
When danger comes, we tend to respond in one of these four ways. I always believed that God’s response to threats was always to fight. That since the almighty God cannot be frightened surely as His son, i called run in the face of danger. But this scripture and many others disagrees with that thought. Because although, he doesn’t run from anything (besides nothing can even dare confront him), He is strategic and will give us a plan that soughts our circumstance and our faith. For example, he took Isreal through a long route when they left Egypt because if they go the normal way, they might be frightened by war. That was a Flight response and, in our text today, he told Joseph to run with Jesus.
The savior of the world was on the hit list of the king. And I would think that the angels would have appeared to handle it. But God says, take the child and flee. Really? How can the Lord of the universe be on the run? Because God doesn’t waste battles. There are some fights that are not necessary and this move fulfilled a prophecy. If God asks you to run? Run! He said flee from sexual immorality, flee! Don’t comfront it, He is wiser than you. May the Lord give you discernment to know when to run, to know when to use the flight, fight, freeze, or fall response in Jesus name. Amen.
Shalom.
