Do Not Fear

 "I am the Lord your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear." (Isaiah 41:13)

Fear. The response to it is varied. It immobilizes, instills a compulsion to run, or perhaps it stirs up a violent reaction.  

The source is varied. Something external like an aggressive dog with clenched teeth running in your direction, so you fear for you physical safety. Something internal like a ruminating thought about your unworthiness or unlovability, so you fear that you'll always be alone. 

What it seeks to threaten is varied. It can threaten your sense of emotional, physical, or psychological security. Your sense of safety feels compromised. 

However you respond to a threat, the source of the threat, or what type of instability it causes, God has an answer for it all. He will hold your hand. He will help. 

That is the kind of security I want to feel. Instead of the typical fear response, I choose to see Him holding my hand. Whether the source comes outside of myself (a situational trigger) or within myself, (my own unhelpful thoughts) I choose to let God take hold of my hand and say to me 

 "Do not fear, I will help you."

"I am God, nothing is too hard for Me."

"The things you fear will not come to pass." 

"I have not given you a spirit of fear, but a spirit of love and power and of a sound mind." 

In all that we fear, we ought to remember that God loves us and ultimately His plan is to save us. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him will have everlasting life." (John 3:16)

Jesus was sent to save our lives from sin, death, and yes even fear. He has already saved our lives from death, has He not the power to do it again in the things we face in our lives? In the book Sacred Parenting, by Gary L. Thomas, he quotes, C.H. Spurgeon, one of the most influential preachers in church history (1834-1892)

"The Lord seems to say to us, "What I have done before, I will do again. I have redeemed you, and I will still redeem you. I have brought you from under the hand of the oppressor; I have delivered you from the tongue of the slanderer; I have borne you up under the load of poverty and sustained you under the pains of sickness; and I am still able to do the same. Why, then do you fear? Why should you be afraid, since already I have again and again redeemed you? Take heart, and be confident, for ever to old age and to death itself I will continue to be your Redeemer."

I am so grateful for this idea. The idea that fear is abolished when I realize that in my redemption, I have been saved from so much more. I have been saved from death itself. Fear has no place in my life, for it is love, power, and a sound mind that rests in its place. For all of this, I am so grateful. I will be aware of what Jesus did for me on the cross, I will hold God's hand, and I will choose obey when He says, "Do not fear."