There are many places in His Word that God tells us to “Fear not”. Here are two that have been especially strengthening to me.
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you.” (Isaiah 43:1b-2)
“Fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10)
Often, when I have been struggling with deep-seated fears, the Lord has brought these words to mind. My experience has been that the Holy Spirit brings things to the surface in our lives at the right time so that they can be brought into the Light of God the Father’s love and truth and healing and sanctifying power. God’s Word, such as these verses cited above, comes alive through the Holy Spirit and delivers us from besetting fears and frees us to serve the Living God without fear and other hindrances.
The enemy of our souls attacks us with fears of various kinds. He knows how to play into each of our unique experiences, hurts and vulnerabilities in order to try to overwhelm us with fear or other overpowering emotions. But the Lord superimposes His plan over the plans of the enemy in order to deliver us and strengthen us. What the enemy intends for evil, God intends for good! (See Genesis 50:20 )
There are many fears that can attack us and they can be triggered by many different events—global and personal. Fear can cause us to act in ways that hinder us and the work God has for us to accomplish in this life. Sometimes fears and other emotions are buried and affect us in ways that we don’t understand. Often people try to escape from fears and other issues of the heart through various compulsive behaviours or obsessive thought patterns. These things are not necessarily obviously bad for us though they can be. But they do represent ways of running away from our fears or other issues by keeping them buried. That is why, even though the enemy may attack us and threaten to overwhelm us with our emotions, God intends something really good—to bring these things to the surface so that He can free us.
We are not to be afraid of our emotions when we have the Lord to help us with them. God redeems what the enemy has tried to use to hurt us in our lives. God does this so that we may see His delivering power. As we respond to God through His Word and by His Spirit, we experience God’s power in a way that causes us to trust more deeply and to be more effective in ministering His delivering and healing power to others.
In this Lenten season of God‘s Love, as we remember how our Lord overcame the attacks of the evil one on our behalf, let us trust more deeply in our Deliverer, Jesus, and in the power of His Word made real and alive to us through His Spirit.
These verses of Scripture are powerfully paraphrased in the hymn, “How firm a Foundation”. As you listen, let these words strengthen and deliver you. (I found two very different settings that I thought were good but there are others if you go on youtube.)
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