Fear Is Like A Barking Dog, You Can Only Overcome It By Confronting It

 

 

 

A man once recounted his ordeal with a giant dog in his neighbourhood. It was not just that the dog was very huge, but also that the sound it produced when barking was extremely terrifying no matter how long you have heard it bark before.

 

"The saddest thing," the man said, "was that, the street being a close, had only one way out of it. If you must go out, you must necessarily pass by the gate where the dog was. Its owner lived at the entrance of the close. Going out and coming in was, therefore, always a nightmare. I had prayed literally everyday that this dog would not be there while I passed."

 

"However," the man continued, "it appeared that God never answered that prayer, because in spite of all the prayer, the dog was always there. The dog also appeared to have noticed the sweat-inducing fear its presence caused me, as it took delight in barking at and chasing me whenever it saw me come. I would run and hide until I saw someone who would help me pass the dog."

 

"One day," he continued his pathetic story, "I had an all important appointment. I had to leave home very early in the morning. Somehow, I was thankful to God that I got up that early. I actually thought the dog wasn't out that early. Before I got twenty metres to the gate, what did I see? Was that the dreadful dog staring at me; its eyes sparking fire? I froze.

 

"What do I do now? I asked myself"

 

"If I turn to run, it will pounce on me in seconds. The dog barked, sending shivers down my spine. It started towards me. I bent down and picked a stone, which graciously lay by my right foot. I raised the stone as the dog growled at me. I hit it hard and bent down to pick another stone. To my amazement, the terror dog had run away. From that day, the dog had never withstood me anymore."

 

Fear, like a barking dog, can be life-threatening. It poses sweat-inducing nightmare. It reveals man's weakness and vulnerability in the face of natural challenges. When faced with a barking dog, like the narrator did, the general tendency is for one to run away, avoid it , and find an alternative route to circumvent the barking dog; and perhaps testify at church how he escaped the dog and how God gave him the wisdom to discover another route through which he circumnavigated against the barking dog.

 

The truth, however, is that until you confront and dislodge the barking dog, you are still subject to its threats. One day, you will certainly pass through that road and the barking dog will pose a hindrance.

 

So many of us, if not everybody, have life challenges, which, like the barking dog scare us out of our wits end. Except we courageously confront it, we will be living at the mercy of that situation, while getting hindered day by day.

 

Challenges which constitute barking dogs in our lives and condemn us to a long term subservience to fear include secret of an ugly past, sin or disgraceful habit, shameful ailment or weakness, a feeling of social inadequacy, like illiteracy, lack of training, and so on. 

 

CHARACTERISTICS OF A BARKING DOG

1. It disgraces you when your spirit is high.

2. It takes delight in intimidating you, the more you revere and run away from it.

3. It has no respect for your status or title. It disgraces you all the same.

 

HOW TO CONFRONT THE BARKING DOG

1. Get angry with the incessant intimidation it gives you, instead of priding yourself in your ability to run away from it. In Judges 3:20-23, Ehud put an end to the intimidation the children of Israel suffered in the hands of Eglon, the king of Moab, by confronting and killing him.

2. Risk your prestige, comfort or even life to chase the beast and put it on the defensive. Queen Esther in the Book of Esther 4:16, risked her crown, and her very life, to confront and cancel Haman's threat against the Jews. Namaan in 2 Kings 5, buried his social prestige to confront the stigma of leprosy, by obeying the instructions of Prophet Elisha. Charles the Great of France was challenged by lack of education. He encouraged learning in his empire, and became himself one of the first pupils, sitting in the classroom with kids of his grandchildren's age to study without shame.

 

In conclusion, you must realise that if you are too ashamed of yourself to confront that challenge in your life, that same challenge will bring you perpetual shame. If you, however, risk five minutes of shame to confront a disgraceful habit, you will spend a lifetime to celebrate your honour.

 

Give your life to the Lord Jesus today, and make Him your Lord and personal Saviour.

 

Respect sprouts from the cold ashes of yesterday's flame of shame.