I had it said to me in a congregation recently “if you are going to work, have a job, out of fear, it is not God”.
No
Going to work, having a job, being gainfully employed is self preservation. Not only that, people holding down a job is the binding agent for community. We learned a few years back what happens in New York City if the sanitation engineers, the trash pickup people, so not show up for work for two days in a row. The city was over run by sewage and waste within 4 days time. This job that people consider beneath them is what makes their posh lives possible. Same with mechanics, and waiters/waitresses, maintenance workers and cleaning services.
Yes it is written that the “SPIRIT OF FEAR” is not from God. That would be the phobias, an unnatural fear when nothing is opposing or confronting you, an uncanny fear of the unknown or something that just might happen in the future or of “things that go bump in the night”, things you cannot see, things you have not heard about before.
The quickness of breath, increased heart rate, hair rising on the back of your neck, or knot in your stomach type of reaction to a real or perceived danger is a provision for us for self preservation, an innate ability to sense danger. I do not know if I would categorize that as “from God” in the sense that Creator God just made it happen to us. Creator God did make us and put everything in us so in that way those automatic responses alerting us to danger did come from God.
If you do not have a job and you do not pay your rent then being afraid you might get evicted is not disbelief or lack of faith in God.
In fact, work is a commandment given by Creator God. It is written “work for the night is coming when man’s work is through”. Squirrels bury food all summer so that in the winter they do not starve. In Israel Joseph set up barns filled with grain in Egypt so they could live through the 7 years of famine. On the 6th day God Commanded Israel to gather twice as much mammon so they could eat and rest on the Sabbath.
Fear of failure is a natural response to taking a first step in a new direction in life. It is an energizing force that gets us up out of bed in the morning, unless we let it take over and paralyze us. In that case it is a matter of degree of fear whether it is natural and normal or not.
Leave a Reply