Fearless in a Frightening World

Fear is an overwhelming emotion that can take hold of us, causing complete irrationality. Sometimes fear can be more devastating than the very thing we are afraid of.

But God says that as followers of Jesus Christ, we don’t have to be afraid. Why? Because He is with us. Psalm 91:4 tells us, “He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection” (NLT).

The psalmist went on to say, “Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. . . . Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you” (verses 5, 7 NLT). God will put His wings around us. He will protect us. And because of this, we don’t have to be afraid.

However, what the psalmist isn’t saying is that God’s people will be immune to difficulties in life. There are Christians who have faced calamities and hardships. And there are Christians who have been victims of crimes. Therefore, these verses don’t give us a carte blanche promise that we never will face any difficulty. Instead, they give us a promise from God that He will be with us, no matter what we go through. And He will see us through.

Interestingly, the devil quoted a passage from Psalm 91 to Jesus during His temptation in the wilderness. Matthew’s Gospel says, “The devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, ‘If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, “He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone”’” (4:5–6 NLT).

The devil was referencing verses 11 and 12 from Psalm 91, but he took the passage out of context. He was attempting to use Scripture to say that Jesus could recklessly test the Lord without consequences.

Jesus, however, brought it back into context and replied, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God’” (Matthew 4:7 NLT).

We should not go out and unnecessarily endanger our lives. It’s a clear violation of Scripture and obviously tests the Lord.

God has a work He is going to do in our lives. And until He is done with that work, we are indestructible. We see this illustrated in the story of the apostle Paul after he was shipwrecked. As Paul attended to a fire, a poisonous snake bit his hand. But Paul simply shook off the snake into the fire. Paul wasn’t affected by the venom because God wasn’t finished with Paul yet.

In the same way, God will keep us on Earth and be with us here until He has completed His work through our lives. There are so many things today that can strike fear in our hearts. Yet as we look at a frightening world, we can have courage, not because of who we are but because God is with us.

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