Does fear torment people?

Last month, I went to Guwahati in Assam to present a paper in a seminar. On the last day of the seminar, there was a shoot-out between the guerrillas and the military in the city and a few soldiers were killed. Everywhere I could see tense people. On the same night, we had to leave for Dimapur in Nagaland. This city is still in the interior part where the guerrillas are very active. When I urged my friend to take me by train to Dimapur, his answer was that it was not safe to travel by train. Somehow we reached Dimapur on the next day and in the morning we heard that there was another shoot-out by the military and a young man was killed leading to fear and tension among the people.
When I was in Dimapur, my friend told me that nobody goes out of the house after six in the evening. Wherever you go, you will find soldiers with guns ready to shoot. There are hundreds of military check posts where there is thorough checking of all people. In the college where I stayed, my friend said that sometimes the Naga guerrillas used to visit the institution in the night. They visit the rich people and demand money. When I was in Dimapur, I felt that the life in that part of our country is very insecure. Most of the people of that area live in constant fear and tension.
At that time, I was reading I John for my morning devotions. So one morning when I read 1 John 4:18, I was able to understand the effect of fear in the lives of people. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.” For the first time in my life, I learned that fear brings torment. At that time I tried to meditate on what torment is.
The Bible dictionary gave the meaning of torment as ‘to suffer unbearable pain.’ It can be the physical pain of the servant of the Centurion who lay ‘at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented’ (Matt. 8:6) or the torment in hell where people will be ‘tormented day and night forever and ever’ (Rev. 20:10) or the torment that Lot had in his soul when he lived in Sodom (2 Pet. 2:7,8). On that day, I learned the effect of torment in the lives of people. This verse also brought to my memory the torment that my friend had when he gave in to fear. This incident happened about 25 years ago. One day one of my friends came to me and told me that he was having throat cancer. I asked him, “How did you find out that you have throat cancer.” He told me, “Whenever I swallow something there is pain in my throat.” I asked him, “Did you visit a doctor?” He answered, “I visited a doctor and he asked me to show the place where I feel the pain. When I showed the place, he laughed and told me that he had never met a patient with cancer in the throat with pain in that particular place.” My friend was a teacher in a high school at that time. He got married a few months earlier. His wife was also a teacher in a school. I could see that he was convinced that he was having throat cancer. He told me that he could not sleep for many days. I tried to convince him that he was not having cancer. But he was not prepared to believe me. How will he believe me if he was not prepared to believe what the doctor had told him? I know that his neighbour died of throat cancer. In those days, the modern facilities for the treatment of cancer were not available for people in the villages. So she died a horrible and painful death. My friend who lived next door heard the painful cry of that lady and developed a terror towards cancer. He began to feel that he was having cancer and felt that he would die a horrible death like that lady. He feared what will happen to his wife if he died of cancer. He was tormented by the horrible nature of cancer. When I recall this incident in the life of my friend, I understand the torment that fear produces in the lives of people. Now my friend is a headmaster of a high school in Tirunelveli district and never had cancer so far.
Fear produces unnecessary torment in life. You may ask what is the solution for such fear. The Bible gives the solution that ‘perfect love casts out fear’ (1 John 4: 18). The fear in the lives of people can be overcome only by enjoying the love of God in their personal life. Paul enjoyed this perfect love in his life. So he confidently wrote, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” He wrote that tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, and nakedness will not be able to separate us from the love of Christ (Rom. 8:34,35). He also wrote, “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:38,39).
Some of you may be tormented by fear like my friend. You may ask me how perfect love casts out fear. The love of God is poured in our hearts when we put our trust on God and accept Him as our Saviour and Lord. Paul enjoyed the love of God in his life. All the first century Christians and the martyrs in the history of the world enjoyed this love. So they lived in this world without fear even when they were persecuted. They died as martyrs joyfully, because they enjoyed the love of God in their lives. For them, the world was not worthy. They enjoyed the love of God so much that they were not afraid of suffering
or humiliation or persecution or even death.
Will you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour and receive this love of God, which in turn will cast out your fear which torments you now?

(Dr. C Barnabas, Translated from True Discipleship Nov.-Dec. 2001)