Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,In this I will be confident. (Psalm 27:1-3)
You must not fear them, for the Lord your God Himself fights for you. (Deuteronomy 3:22)
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. (1 Peter 5:6-11)
When I was younger (and truthfully not much younger) I had a really difficult time with the Old Testament. I liked the Sunday School stories and some of the images were fun to concoct in my imagination. I'd think about what it would be like to be on a single boat with both snakes and mice, both hawks and rabbits. I'd wonder how tall Goliath really was. My favorite was always the parting of the Red Sea. I'd close my eyes and picture walking through the middle of two walls of water so high above my head that I couldn't see the sky. I'd pretend to run my hand along the water and then worry that I might knock it down. Even with all that fun however, the Old Testament always seemed so separate; so foreign. I didn't see how verses and stories could relate to me because I wasn't likely to be in a war with swords and spears being thrown around me, and that seemed to be an element of almost all the stories I heard. It has only been recently that God has started to whisper truths to my heart that I find while reading the Old Testament.
One of my little cousins who I have been living with has a knack for asking "what if" questions. She can take any normal situation and move it to an absurd place far from reality just to ask you what you would do if that were the case. I don't normally answer these questions, I simply tell her that I don't play the game of "what ifs"; I like to deal with what is happening right now and not worry about something made up. Well, I was thinking about that answer and I realized, that isn't exactly true.
Every one of us worries about something; or some things. We are all afraid even though we hate that word. Afraid. Scaredy-cat. Worrywart. Chicken. These terms are demeaning and make us seem weak and insecure so we deny them, but if we're honest, we all let fear seep into the cracks of our lives. I used to say I wasn't afraid of anything because I liked spiders and heights didn't bother me and I learned to love the dark and that basically covered the main fears. Of course this was when I was in high school and was confident that I'd graduate, go straight to college, get a fabulous job, fall in love and get married, and let life work out just for me. Since then, I've discovered, I get scared; I play the "what if" game in my head. What if I get to be another year older and still nothing has changed? What if someone else asks me what I'm doing with my life and I don't have a good answer? What if they think less of me? What if they forget me? What if I had stayed? What if I fall to that same temptation again? What if that voice in my head that beats me up never goes away? What if he had loved me? What if I were more lovable? What if I'm not lovable? What if this is it?
Those are real questions that I just climbed up into the attic of my mind to retrieve. I wasn't planning on doing this, but why don't you take just a second to do that yourself. Grab a pen and a piece of paper and think about the "what ifs" that haunt you without you even realizing it. It's okay, I'll wait...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jj0ChLVTpaA
Ready? Were you surprised by what you found? Maybe... or maybe you knew what was waiting there. What if I never get married? What if I get divorced? What if that relationship never gets mended? What if I get sick? What if lose my job? What if I can't afford my car? What if someone I love gets cancer? What if someone I love dies? What if he leaves me? What if I never find a friend I can trust? What if I never learn to forgive him? What if she never forgives me? What if I never reach my dreams?
These thoughts that take up space in our heads can do far more damage than we realize. We become a different version of ourselves when the fears we hate come out of hiding. Confidences are shaken and insecurities take over. Patience is gone, because what if we don't have time?! Instead we are short and annoyed. Generosity must leave to make way for stinginess and selfishness. Love becomes conditional and temporary instead of abundant and wholehearted. We cast off the Fruits of the Spirit and reap the Fruits of Fear. The greatest tragedy is that when we are ruled by fear we lose our witness. We lose the opportunity to be an example to those who do not know the saving truth that we carry. 1 Peter 3:15 tells us to be ready whenever anyone asks a reason for the hope that is within us but how will anyone ever ask if hope has been replaced by despair, anger, loneliness, bitterness? The God of all Grace and has called us to eternal glory in Christ Jesus! Where is our hope?
Do you know what I have come to love most about the Old Testament? God speaking to His people. Sometimes He sent a messenger, sometimes He spoke to one and told them to tell the others, sometimes it's not clear if He whispered in someone's ear or just opened up the sky and shouted everything to everyone. I don't understand a lot of things and this is one of them and yet I am drawn to a God with a personality who is not just observing His world and His people but is in every moment of their lives telling them the foundations to build their lives on and to pass down to their children's children's children. One of those foundations I think is written on nearly every page of scripture: DO NOT FEAR. That is more than a suggestion; it's a command.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9)
It is easy to say to a friend, "don't worry about it." It's easy to look from the outside in and tell others to be brave. But when the voice in your head sends a message to your heart and all of a sudden you are surrounded by the uncertainties you run from, how helpful does it seem to hear these same words? Is fear as crippling for you as it is for me?
I tell my sweet little cousin I don't answer "what ifs." Well, what if I did?
Or better yet, what if I found my answer from the God of all Grace?
What if I am alone?
Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand (Isaiah 41:11)
What if they hurt me or turn on me? What if they have power over me and they abuse it?
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid? (Psalm 27:1)
What if I fail? What if I'm not strong enough and I give in to the pressure?
You must not fear them, for the Lord your God Himself fights for you. (Deuteronomy 3:22)
Oh! How I love that verse. The Lord, yes the Lord your God, yes the Lord your God HIMSELF fights for you! He battles for you. He goes up against your enemies, He takes on your demons and He does it for you! And not only that...
And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world. (1 John 2:1b-2) (**not to change the subject, but this verse alone sort of kicks Calvinism in the teeth.)
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:25)
Jesus Christ, the Son of God who lived a perfect life and died our death and took the punishment for our sins and then conquered death by rising from the grave and leaving no room for fear and then ascending into Heaven where He will one day take us to live for all eternity is advocating and interceding on our behalf. Can you fathom that? Can you just let that sink in. He is God. And He is on your side. He is on my side. Whom shall I fear?
I have forever carried with me what I was told by my "second dad" if you will (not that I need another one), on a mission trip to the Philippines. When discussing what things could happen he asked us, "What is so scary about that? All they can do is take your life... and they can't even do that unless God has appointed this to be your time to die. If now is your time to die then no doctor, no medicine, nothing is going to give you another second of life and if it is not your time to die, no man (or disease or catastrophe or accident) on this planet can touch you."
Whom shall I fear?
The namesake of this blog comes from Matthew 6:25-34. Christ is speaking there and He is compelling His followers to put away worry and anxiety and stress and instead trust a God who takes care of lilies and sparrows because you better believe that He loves you more than either of those things. You are His child! His precious child.
We all have fears, but it is a choice to live in them. If we continue to be swayed by worries we will come to the end of our lives without having been a witness for Jesus Christ and we will have hindered others from seeing Him in our lives. We can never be separated from Him, He is with us always, no one can touch us outside of His plan, what others mean for evil He means for good. This promises series started because I wanted to preach God's promises to my soul. There could be no better practice than this. Your fears may not disappear and it may be a battle you will continually fight with yourself, but you are not fighting alone and your team mate has never lost a fight. And guess what? He never will. I promise (but don't take my word for it.)
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:
“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8: 31-39)
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