Page 95 - Biblical Counseling II

beetles, and ants. She often would pick bugs up and put them in a container. (Remember, we have no
poisonous bugs where we live!). One day, a neighbor friend was over, and they were playing by a tree. There
was a spider on the tree. Normally, Cailey would have happily watched the spider. Her friend screamed,
“AHHHH! A spider!” and ran away from the tree. Cailey paused for a few seconds as she watched her friend,
and then she did the same thing. She screamed and ran away. From that time on, she was afraid of spiders. If
we go back to nature/nurture, Cailey’s nature was to be curious in the world around her. She learned to be
afraid of a spider because of nurture. When she observed her friend act afraid of a spider, she learned to be
afraid too.

Another example comes from my friend Betsy. When she was five years old, a neighbor’s pet dog knocked
her over and licked her face. The dog was not trying to hurt her, but she was terrified. Several months later,
a friend’s dog took a toy out of her hand and bit her finger. Stimulus generation occurred, and she was afraid
of all dogs after this second incident. When I met her as an adult, she would start shaking and feel very
nervous if she saw a dog, even one from a distance. She would immediately move to a place where she
could no longer see the dog. This is an example of stimulus generation as well as reinforcement.

Reflection: Can you recall a fear that you have learned? What role, if any, was played by fear conditioning?
What was influenced by observational learning?

Experience helps shape such fearfulness or fearlessness, but so do our genes. Genes influence our
temperament – our emotional reactivity. Scientists have isolated a gene that influences the amygdala’s
response to frightening situations. People with a short version of this gene have less of a protein that speeds
the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin. With more serotonin available to activate their amygdala
neurons, people with this short gene exhibit a revved-up amygdala response to frightening pictures (Myers,
2009).

Let’s look back on what you learned in Biblical Counseling I. There are eight reminders you can tell yourself or
someone else who feels overcome by fear:

1. Remind yourself that God’s wrath is what should be feared most, but that it has been removed in
Christ (Matt. 10:28, Heb. 2:14-15).
2. Remind yourself that Christ is the good shepherd and is taking care of you (Psalm 23, John 10:11, 14).
3. Remind yourself that you are secure in Christ (Rom. 8:35; Jude 24)
4. Remind yourself that love casts out fear and you are loved by God (1 John 4:17-18).
5. Remind yourself that God has not given you a spirit of fear but of power (2 Tim. 1:7)
6. Remind yourself that Christ faced the temptations of fear but overcame on your behalf, and now you
can receive the help you need (Heb. 4:15-16).
7. For those who fear imperfection, remember that you are already perfect in Christ (2 Cor. 5:21, Heb.
12:22-24)
8. Remind yourself that God is in control of all things and is working them together for your good
(Rom. 8:28)

Now that we have spent time on the emotion of fear, let’s move on to anger.

Anger
“Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.” Eccl. 7:9

What makes us angry? Sometimes anger is a response to a friend or loved one’s perceived misdeeds,
especially when the person’s act seems willful, unjustified, and avoidable. But small hassles and blameless
annoyances – gross smells, high temperatures, traffic, aches and pains – also have the power to make us
angry (Myers, 2009).
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