Jan 06 2009
Be Not Afraid
Did you know the words, “Be not afraid,” appear in Scripture 365 times? One for every single day of the year. I find that fact intriguing, believing God knew we would need comfort to cover every single day of the year.
Right now we live in perilous times, when even listening to the news takes courage. And it looks like it may even get worse. But today I was reading in Isaiah 37, and found a treasure there.
King Hezekiah received a message from the marauding Assyrians, telling him they were going to conquer Israel. The message even dares to question the sovereignty of God, saying, “Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” Now remember, Assyria was a powerful, ungodly nation, who loved humiliating other nations, with a massive army of soldiers who loved war.
As you can imagine, Hezekiah was shaking in his boots. It says he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went to church to pray. And Hezekiah asked the Prophet Isaiah what he thought would happen. Isaiah said, “Thus says the Lord, “Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard…for behold I will put a spirit on him so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land. And I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.”
It’s easy to despair when we hear a fear-provoking message. And yet God says, “Do not fear.” He hears us when we cry out to Him. He begins the process of picking up the pieces, and He wants us to hold onto our confidence, and not give up in despair.
It’s our choice whether to sit down and give up on the battlefield, but why would we do that, when our God promises to go before us, making a way when we ask?
The point I want to make here is, let’s not be so paralyzed by fear that we forget what the Lord has said, what He’s done for us in the past, and what He’s promised to do in the future. We serve an awesome God who always went before Israel and He has promised never to leave us.
So hold onto those words, “Do not fear,” and practice the presence of the Lord, for in the end, that will be our saving grace and our salvation.
Because of His great love,
Nancy
