Do Not Fear

April 17

Deuteronomy 31

Psalm 47

Proverbs 11:14-15

Luke 12:1-21

Do Not Fear

“Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or be in dread of them, for Yahweh your God is the One who goes with you.  He will not fail you or forsake you….And Yahweh is the One who goes ahead of you;  He will be with you.  He will not fail you or forsake you.  Do not fear or be dismayed.”  Deuteronomy 31:6, 8  LSB

I have heard that there are 365 verses in the Bible that have some variation of “do not be afraid,” one for every day of the year.  I don’t think that is actually true.  Several people have tried to do a count looking at different translations and only came up with somewhere around 200.  But, wow, 200!  God knows that there are frightening things that happen in this life.  We all experience things that make us afraid.  Even tough guys who claim to not be afraid of anything get scared sometimes.  The thing that scares me may be different from what keeps you awake at night, but we all experience fear at one time or another.  Financial problems, health issues, evil people, natural disasters, the dark, snakes, being alone, cancer, or any number of awful things can bring us to our knees.  The Bible does not tell us not to be afraid because there isn’t anything to be afraid of. There are lots of legitimate reasons to fear.  The Bible tells us that we don’t need to be afraid because God is with us.  He will never fail us or forsake us.  No matter what happens, we are not alone.  He may not prevent bad things from happening but we can know that He is there with us.  Like Daniel’s three friends who were thrown into the fiery furnace.  They were not alone, Jesus was walking around in the flames with them and brought them out safely.    

            When my girls were little, there was a situation down the street where a man barricaded himself in his house.  There were a lot of police cars and fire trucks surrounding his house.  My girls were very scared and would not calm down until their dad came home from work.  They were in no danger, but they needed Daddy because he made them feel safe.  Whenever I see these verses I think about that day.  No matter what we are facing, God goes ahead of us.  He is with us every step of the way.  We do not have to fear or be in dread because He will take care of us.  He will give us the strength, the courage, and the ability to walk through it.  In His loving mercy and grace, He reminded the children of Israel in the Old Testament numerous times that if they trusted Him and put their faith in Him, He would never let them down.  In the New Testament, He repeated this promise many times to His followers.  (Matthew 28:20, John 14:27, Hebrews 13:5, 2 Corinthians 12:9)  We can be confident that He will take care of us.  We can place our trust in Him.  He will never fail us.