Courageous Pt 1 – Triumph over Trauma

Courage Pt 1: How to Triumph Over Trauma 

• An old Arab fable tells of Pestilence going to Baghdad to take 5,000 lives. On the way back, the chief of a caravan accuses him of taking 50,000. Pestilence insists he only took 5,000; “Fear killed the rest”. This illustrates how the fear of a potential outcome (like being hurt again) can be more destructive than the actual event itself, robbing people of life and relationships.

Text: Job 3:24  “I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water. 25For the thing I feared has overtaken me, and what I dreaded has befallen me. 26I am not at ease or quiet; I have no rest, for trouble has come.”

Job’s fear in context – NOT THE FEAR IS A MAGNET PRINCIPLE! 

• Job’s suffering is clearly traced to God’s permission for Satan to test him, not to any inner fear or sin in Job (Job 1–2).
• Remember: Satan was Allowed to Test Job
  • Job 1:21 The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” 22 In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
  • John 10:10 – Is Jesus or Job right? 
  • When Job later says, “what I feared has come upon me” (Job 3:25), he is expressing agony and dread in the middle of suffering, not explaining its cause.

• Fear does not trigger God’s judgment, 
• • But fear can deepen our anguish, 
  • And fear can perpetuate pain!
  • Fear can make initial suffering a cycle! 
  • How? Fear can cause us to lose hope!

• Fear can narrow our perspective and vision of what God can do next, 

• • And make it harder to rest in God’s character while we suffer.
  • Fear is Faith in Reverse: It’s magnifying circumstances bigger than God, and paralyzes you to surrender the rest of your life. 
• Fear of a hopeless future must be surrendered to the Lord, or that fear will perpetuate the pain of the past!
  • God wants to move you from wounds to a witness! 

The Lobster and the Shell

The lobster is a soft, vulnerable creature that lives inside a hard shell. As it grows, the shell becomes restrictive and uncomfortable. To grow, the lobster must shed its old shell, leaving it completely exposed to predators for a time until a new, larger one hardens. The fear of being hurt again is like a person refusing to shed their old, protective emotional shell, which ultimately stunts their spiritual and relational growth. Growth requires a period of vulnerability, relying on a “rock” (God) for protection during the transition.

• Fear is something to bring honestly to God so that faith, not dread, shapes how we walk through pain.
  • • Fear must be brought to God and surrendered.
      •  2 Peter 5:7 “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 
        • Greek:  epi (upon) and rhipto (to throw), forcefully throw! 
        • This is an act of faith, not feeling. You forcefully surrender your dread and fear to the Lord by refusing to hold on to pain indefinitely. 
          • This allows God to intervene and creates space in your mind and heart to heal. 

• God will heal your fear with love
  • 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, 
    • ek (out) ballow (drive or eject “
    • Example: He drove out the money changers” ἐκβάλλω (ekballō).
    • God’s love will drive out the spirit of fear from your mind and heart with the presence of His Spirit. 

• God gives hope and vision for a future. 

• • • Action: Reorient our vision from “what if I’m hurt again?” to “what good can God do through this?”
      • Jeremiah 29:11 isn’t about a life without challenges, but a life with God’s purposeful future and hope.
        • His plans are for good (shalom/wholeness), not harm.
        • Believers do fear but should not be mastered by fear: Why?
• God has given us His Spirit 
  • 2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
• His Spirit brings freedom
  • 2 Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
• His Spirit makes you a son, not a slave.
  • Romans 8:15  “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.

• Three positions to take when it comes to your fear and anxiety: 

1. Resignation – I will have to live in fear and insecurity. It’s never going away, and I can’t help it. Nobody is perfect. This is my lot. My cross to bear.
2. Justification – It’s ok to live like this. God loves me, cares for me, and intends for me to have this experience. I’ll just accept that fear is part of life and embrace insecurity and anxiety.
3. Determination – I will repent of identifying with fear. I will confess and believe that I do not have to live in fear. That I have and will grow in the freedom that God wants me to have.

• When we know who we are in Christ, nothing can shake us. 
  • Isaiah 54:14 “In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.” 

Caveat: Feeling fear and letting it rule over us are two different things. 

1. We have a choice of either ruling it or letting it rule us. 
2. For a moment, Job perpetuated his pain by allowing fear to rob him of his hope. 
   1. Job 30:26 “When I hoped for good, evil came; when I looked for light, then came darkness.” 

While fear did not cause Job’s initial suffering:

• It did weigh down his heart, 
• It clouded his view of God, 
• And fear made the experience of the test more bitter and difficult.

• Fear deepened his distress, 
• And make it harder for him to rest in God while he was in pain. 
  • His fear functioned like fuel on a fire that was already burning.

Fear’s Effect #1: No ease and no rest.

• Job 3:25–26 – “For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes.”
  • These verses illustrate how dread seizes his ease, quiet, and rest, adding inner torment to his outward trials.

Fear’s Effect #2: Fear of ongoing suffering and guilt.

• Job 9:28 – “I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.”
  • His fear leads him to expect only more pain 
  • And to assume God will not acquit him, which intensifies his sense of despair.

Fears Effect #3 Anguish of Spirit, Bitter Sorrow

• Job 7:11 – “Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.”
  • The “anguish” and “bitterness” in his soul spill over into his words, revealing how inner distress affects his experience of the test.

Fear’s Effect #4 Fear-colored view of God and life

• Job 10:1–3 – “I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me. Does it please you to oppress…?”

Fear narrowed his perspective on God

• Trauma and dread leave Job with the lens that God is responsible for his pain. , 

1. Job’s trauma, dread, alienation, and feeling unsafe

• Physical and emotional trauma: Job describes relentless suffering and dread of more to come:
  • “The arrows of the Almighty are in me… the terrors of God are arrayed against me” (Job 6:4).

2. Job struggles to see goodness and security under God’s sovereignty. 

• “When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges—if it is not he, who then is it?” (Job 9:24).

3. Job doubts the goodness and security in God’s dealings:

• “Does it please you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?” (Job 10:3).
• “You have turned cruel to me; with the might of your hand you persecute me” (Job 30:21).

4.  Job’s fear-distorted speech about God.

• “…let me know why you contend against me” (Job 10:2).

Conclusion: The Lord’s evaluation of Job’s words:

• God answers Job “out of the whirlwind” and repeatedly asks, “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2; cf. 40:2, 8).
• God confronts Job’s presumption: “Will you even put me in the wrong? Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?” (Job 40:8).

• Job’s own confession that he spoke beyond his understanding:

• • “Then Job answered the Lord and said: ‘I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted’” (Job 42:1–2).
  • Job quotes back God’s earlier charge and applies it to himself: “Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know” (Job 42:3).

The Trapeze Artist: A trapeze artist in a circus must let go of one bar completely to catch the next one. They cannot hold onto both at the same time. The illustration emphasizes that we must fully release the old to seize the new, trusting that the next “bar” (God’s plan and provision) will be there.

“Job gets double for his trouble” comes from the biblical book of Job, specifically Job 42:10, where, after Job prayed for his friends, 

1. The Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before, including livestock, wealth, and a new family. 
2. Blessing his later life more than his beginning. I
3. t signifies divine restoration, showing that God’s blessing can exceed past suffering

“I know my Redeemer lives.” Job 19:25 is more than an ancient cry of faith—it is the heartbeat of Christian hope. 

1. The resurrection of Jesus Christ stands as the ultimate proof that death, suffering, and loss never have the final word. 
2. Even in seasons of deep pain or uncertainty, the promise of eternal life reminds us that our Redeemer not only lives but reigns,
   1. He is turning sorrow into strength. 
   2. Trauma into testimony.
   3.  Because Christ lives, the believer can face any hardship with quiet confidence, 
      1. Beyond every cross lies a crown, 
      2. And beyond every tear awaits everlasting triumph.
      3. Beyond every pain is everlasting peace
      4. Beyond every trauma triumph forever. 
      5. And beyond every hurt, a heaven filled with joy