I have watched amazed as others bungy jump from bridges and towers, but I have never jumped off myself. I could tell you that it was the wisdom of years or just the fact that I don't need that sort of excitement or accomplishment, but fear is the honest reason. But I don't feel bad at being afraid - just rather happy at being alive.

Noah was warned by God of things coming on the earth that had never been seen or experienced before. Noah was moved with fear to build an ark that saved his family and was declared righteous because of his faith. Obviously then faith is not the absence of this type of fear. Nor does this type of fear preclude faith. Faith is doing what God says to do even though we may be afraid. Here both fear and faith, served God’s purpose. 

But what is this fear that Noah had?  This was not a faithless terror but a natural fear no doubt taught by his mother and experience.  I mean who wants to drown?  Unlike Phobos which is the usual word used for the fear that believers shouldn't accept, Eulabeomai, means having caution or reverence toward a circumstance or person. Noah was moved with caution and reverence toward who God is and what God had said was coming, so he obeyed. The only other place this word is used is in Acts 23 when the commander feared that Paul would be pulled apart by the mob. So, the commander became concerned and cautious about the developing situation and acted in order to keep Paul physically safe.  Some of Noah’s caution, was no doubt a fear of him and his family drowning and that is normal and also God given. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, based on revelation. The fear of fire or drowning is natural wisdom based on physics and demonic wisdom it's based on lack of divine revelation and selfish ambition.

It has been said that courage is feeling the fear and doing it anyway.  That is true if we are talking about fear (phobia) of witnessing or praying for someone in the gym or trying to build a destroyer size boat with an adze. Feeling the fear and doing it anyway would be foolish if you're talking about the natural fear (eulabeomia) of leaping from a cruise ship into the sea or trying out an experimental bird suit from a great height.

Friends, God wants us to be moved with a godly fear. To have caution and give weight to the days that are coming upon us, and keep building an ark for the saving of our household. Wisdom begins when we fear the Lord. That wisdom and fear of God then informs and moderates our natural fears and enables us to not be moved by the fear of man or the intimidation of the enemy. Fear God, love the brotherhood and don’t jump.