We live in a time marked by fear. Fear of the election, fear of the future, fear for health, fear for the economy, fear of losing jobs, fear of death, fear of loneliness, fear of isolation, you name it. We may find ourselves asking, “How am I supposed to deal with all of this?” How are we as Christians supposed to act in the face of fear?
In these two verses, we see that David doesn’t try to avoid his fear or pretend it doesn’t exist. He faces fear head-on. He doesn’t say anywhere, “If I am afraid,” nor does he say anything like, “I’ll never fear…” Instead, he assumes that there will be times that he’ll have fear. He says, “When I am afraid…” The focus isn’t whether you will encounter fear in your life; it’s what you do with fear that we’re focusing on today.
I was reading an article on trust recently, and they put it like this, “Think of trust as a currency you hold in your hand, like a handful of coins.” Where will you “deposit” your trust when fear hits you? You will end up depositing your trust somewhere when fear strikes, so thinking about it now will allow you to bank on the right choice when that time comes. You will trust someone or something to get you through fear, even if you choose yourself and your willpower.
The solution for a life filled with fear is simple. Notice I’m not saying it is easy, but it is simple. The tactic isn’t to aim to eliminate all fear from your life, but instead to fight the fear with a different sort of fear: trusting in God. You see, that’s where a lot of fear in our lives comes from: when we “deposit” our trust in the wrong places.
Misplaced trust results in us relying on something or someone to do for us the things that only God can promise and fulfill. It is only when God’s Word is speaking louder in our lives than the word of man that we can find ourselves able to breathe deep as we trust in Him.
Sure, those old fears may never disappear from the back of our minds, but again, that’s not the point. The point is that we’re aiming to put those fears in their proper place and rightly-ordered under a healthy fear of God (Psalm 25:14, 111:10; Proverbs 1:7, 3:7, 8:13, 14:27, 19:23; Matthew 10:28; Ecclesiastes 12:13).
It’s in this fear of the Lord that we find we can stand up from these lesser-fears, empowered to confront circumstances, people, and systems that contradict His will and His kingdom values.
So today, on Halloween, I want to leave you with this truth: only God is sovereignly ruling and reigning – no fear can make claims of His supremacy. Trust in the all-powerful, all-loving God; this is essential for casting out fear.
This is my prayer for each and every one of you reading this: that in this climate of uncertainty, may a beautiful and healthy fear of God overcome the fear of man in our...
