Allow me to ask you a very important question. Do you know what God’s most unrelenting directive is in the Scriptures? Or in other words, do you know what one directive God makes most frequently?” Some might say, Well it’s, “love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, and mind and strength” . . . or, “love your neighbor” . . . maybe it’s “go and sin no more”. . . or, “go and do likewise.” The answer is, “Don’t Be Afraid!” “Fear not!” “Be anxious for nothing!”
Someone has concluded that God has used phrases that clearly tell us that He desires that we would be at peace or rest 365 times in the Bible. So why did God feel the need to continually remind us not to be afraid? Maybe it is because so many of us live our lives in fear. We are afraid of failure, of loneliness, of rejection, of worthlessness, and of death.
Did you know there are at least 527 different types of phobias? Claustrophobia, fear of closed in spaces. Arachnophobia is a fear of spiders. Hemophobia is the intense fear of blood. And Phobophobia is the fear of fears. In a study, 500 people were asked to list their fears. Only 500 people and the combined list mentioned more than 7,000 different types of fears. This may seem surprising, but it is interesting we have all of these fears, but for the most part, we rarely talk about them.
And now, right here in the world we are living in, we are experiencing maximum fear and distrust from nearly anyone who is not just like us. Racism is a growing threat, even though most of us are unaffected by this because we are not racist. But there are those who are working to give power to those threats, so we are anxious.
We continually have threats of terrorism. This is very real and widespread. Russia has been a concern for nearly my entire life, as has been China. However, today North Korea has taken the front of the stage with her nuclear threats.
What are we to do?
Proverbs 3:5-6 gives us a strong clue: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
When we are confused and fearful, the first thing we must do is to communicate trustingly with our God, as we refuse to self analyze what is going on around you, or lean not on your own understanding. Trust God!
One passage of Scripture that gives me strength and courage comes from David’s heart of understanding his LORD as the Shepherd of his life in Psalm 23. Verse 4 says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me.”
But the personal invitation from the lips of Jesus in Matthew 11:28 should cause us to run into His arms. “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Nothing causes us to labor and feel overburdened as does fear. Beloved believer, Fear Not! Do not be Afraid! Pray On!
