Today, the world seems like a dark place more than it ever has. Headlines overflow with large portions of bad news. The depravity of man and wickedness of a godless society seemed to want to overwhelm all that is right and good. Our children face a world much more wicked than we faced as children. We are concerned about finances and how this unstable economy will affect our future way of life. Some have had to make hard decisions concerning employment in recent days. Those whom we trusted have turned out to be unworthy of trust, and we feel betrayed and alone.
It is so easy to get caught up in the negativity. Even those who stay far from the news and its doom-and-gloom can easily feel the pessimism creeping into their hearts and minds. As ladies, we are so susceptible to fracturing our thought life on the most trivial of matters! It does not take much to get us derailed mentally, especially in a world rocked by a worldwide pandemic and unprecedented political upheaval. This inward battle is not physical; it is a battle of the mind. When Satan can consume our thought lives, he will have control of so much more of us! We must protect our minds from things like worry, discouragement, and fear.
Fear is a real thing. If it were not, then God would not have mentioned it so much in the Bible. In fact, the Bible uses the word fear more than 500 times. It is hard to go through even one day without hearing about fear or anxiety, whether in our lives or the lives of others. Many people, even before the craziness of last few years changed our world, lived in fear of one thing or another. Whether afraid of not having enough money, rejection, disease, death of themselves or a loved one, failure, or loneliness; we could each pick our “anxiety” poison!
Think right now about your worst fear. Would it not be wonderful to be rid of it forever? To be fear-free is truly freedom! Imagine never having to think about that fear, never being kept awake at night because of it, or never having it be a part of our daily lives. What a wonderful way to live—free of fear!
I looked up the words fear not, and my concordance said that phrase appears 62 times in the Bible. God has clearly commanded us to “FEAR NOT!” In fact, the only fear that the Bible considers a good fear is the fear of the Lord. He knew we would struggle with fear and would need to know how to fight the devil so as not to get consumed with fear.
God never promised us lives without hardships. He never assured us bodies free of disease. He never guaranteed us pockets filled with plenty of money. He did not promise we would never feel the hurt of rejection, the pain of a loss, the crush of a broken dream, the ache of loneliness, or the sting of death.
However, He did promise us that we could enjoy lives free of fear! A fear-free life can be ours, but we must do our part to achieve this. We must seek the Lord and trust Him completely. When we put God first in all we do, seek Him through Bible reading and prayer, and consider Him in all our decisions, we will soon find ourselves, instead of using fear as a crutch, leaning on God to hold us up.
Psalms 34:3-4 says, O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. Our God wants to deliver us; He is just waiting to hear from us. The whole chapter of Psalm 34 is about being safe in the Lord. The last verse of the chapter says, The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate. Deliverance from our fears depends on our trust in Him. Yes, we trusted Him for an eternal Home in Heaven when we got saved. However, we must continue to trust Him each and every day. We must trust that He knows our fears and can help us conquer them. We must trust that He will keep us safe and comfort us when we are hurting. We must constantly cultivate our relationship with Him through daily time in the Bible and through prayer.
No matter how dark the world becomes, remember that we serve the Light of the world Who will one day return to rule forever. Focus on the fact that, come what may, we will win! Our hope until that day is found in our God. For thou art my hope, O Lord GOD: thou art my trust from my youth. – Psalm 71:5
by Tracie S. Burns
