“do not fear what they fear, or be in dread.” Isaiah 8:12
I’m sure you’ve heard the commend to “not be afraid” is said more often than anything else in the Bible. If you think about it, this is somewhat disturbing. If God has to say this more than anything else, there is a reason. We as humans are a fearful people. Yea, ‘be not afraid’ is encouraging but, on the other hand, it’s very sobering.
God told Isaiah ‘do not fear what they fear.’ Who are ‘they’? ‘They’ are the ‘pagans’ and non-believers. What do they fear? Pretty much everything? Death, loss of loved ones, loss of money and so on. Why do they fear? Simply put, they don’t know God. I’m not saying a Catholic is better than a non-believer. But, as believers, there should be something striking about us. As believers, we have hope in the Lord. We know Who He is, what He can and has done and who we are. It’s impossible to not fear but, when your faith is strong, God helps put the fear in the right perspective.
I have often pondered on how things went in those darkest days of my daughter’s illness. I had met my wife only a decade earlier. She brought me to God. I had been a single dad for a few years before we met. So I wonder, what would have happened if I hadn’t met Connie and had never come to know God? How would I have survived those days or had the strength to remain strong and active when my days were filled with overwhelming fear and stress, generally 18-20 hours each day?
I had faith and prayed a lot through those months. I still struggled and had fears, but, God really did shield and strengthen me.
“those who hope for the Lord shall renew their strength” Isaiah 49:31
Flip things a bit, remove that moment I met God a decade prior. Remove the anchor of faith and hope in God. I barely survived that traumatic night and following week in the ICU. Without God, I would have been frazzled at best by the preceding months and broken by that night. That night, with my God, nearly broke me. My faith struggled but because of that foundation of faith, I was able to look up from under the stormy waters and see Jesus’ hand reaching for me.
In the equation that is life, God is a huge factor of poet for believers. He truly is our strength and shield. God gives us hope even in the darkest of dark days. He strengthens us to take another step forward when all we want to do is lay down and cry. He shields us from the worst of what fear brings into our heart – despair and hopelessness.
The emotion of fear is real and may not be able to be overcome, but God gives us an edge over fear. Hope!