In this instance - as in all instances connected to the Divine plan - the fear was a small part of a much bigger picture; a picture that would lead to the salvation of man. The most helpful part of fear is to see it as a small part of a much bigger supernatural picture, and that if we stay focused on living for Him, our fears will be allayed much quicker. Christ had His prayer refused by the Father, so we naturally, in our own life, expect to endure certain things that are very difficult to cope with. But we can find a way to endure these things. In becoming man, God had to endure a period of separation; He had to become detached from the Heavenly realm so that we could reattach ourselves to the Heavenly realm through our own self-surrender. The very act of creation at the human level and, presumably, at the Divine level, has to involve a form of detachment. The more perfect the creature is, the further this detachment must at some point be pushed. And of course, this applies to other things in daily life too. How very often it is the case that the greater the intellectual the more he is dissatisfied with people in general. At his worst he becomes misanthropic; at his best he become a leader and a hero, but there always seems some detachment involved. 

 

It is probably true that the moment Christ was detached from the Father on the cross was the single most painful experience possible. To be God and then, for a brief period of time, separated from Him must involve a pain which is beyond the level of man. But this pain is one of the central things that has taken the weight of our sin; that is, when Christ became sin for us He offered us to the Father in the biggest moment of grace the world has ever seen. And just as we have admitted that the pain Christ endured is of the worst kind - a kind of pain beyond human imagination - we must also admit that the reversal of this; the joy of receiving God’s grace through the Spirit must be a pleasure beyond that of secular understanding. 

 

Christians do not believe anymore that the corporeal world can, by itself, supply them with the tangible media of passion, emotion and sentiment necessary for earthly fulfilment. Having become a ‘new creation’, we can now see the world from both the corporeal realm but also the Heavenly realm. That is, earth retains all of its old factors and ingredients as well as revealing to us a more elevated level of Divine spirituality. 

 

The New Testament writers knew what they were talking about when they tried to encourage us to share in Christ’s suffering. The love of Christ that they were trying to convey had to, just like human love, involve a sharing of every part of life. And just as fear of earthly things involves a form of externality; real fear almost always has to begin with a type of self-fear; a realisation that our inner-state is in need of some providential guidance. It is then that our fear of Him, or perhaps a more gentle explanation - our realisation of His awesome presence and how He suffered what we suffered - leads to the allaying control of other things in our lives. 

 

There is, of course, one other factor with fear; it very often turns out to be very different to that which we first anticipated. That is, supposed fear of one thing is usually a mere by-product of a bigger fear or a bigger dissatisfaction to which God is, either through prayer or the Bible or Christian friends, the answer. It is a very comforting truth that every one of life’s travails has real spiritual value which is very often present in areas of life about which we do not always know at the time of experience. And even those who doubt, or insist that their lives are fine without Him - He will show them a better way - through both good and bad life experiences. 

 

Every single event has a purpose; that is, every single event is either a small or large part of the Divine plan, or can be used in a secondary way to attach itself to the Divine plan. There are, I would say, no neutral events - each event is, often unknown to us, leading us closer to the Lord or reinforcing the grip of the Bad One. But the Bible is full of hope and encouragement - news that those who stand firm with Christ can conquer their fears because He has conquered fear itself. Dozens of times in the Bible you will find the words ‘Do not be afraid’ and there is a very good reason why. We have a God that lived through fear, for us, so that we too would know how to live through fear with Him by our side. And every time we are fearful or worried or insecure, we can take great comfort in the fact that in Christ we have a God who knows what we are going through and knows, by His own experiences, how to help us conquer our worries and fears. And let us not forget that through many of our fears He is building us up into true warriors, ready to tackle all that the world has to throw at us.