Be Not Faint With Fear

December 29

God doesn’t want His people to fret. He wants His people to embody the peace that comes through faith in Jesus Christ as He promised in John 14:27, “My peace I leave with you; not as the world gives peace…” The peace the world extends is based upon circumstances. When life is going well, one has the world's peace. When life becomes problematic, its peace is like a vapor that disappears into thin air.

God wants His children to go forward in confidence—confidence that is borne of the knowledge that Jesus has promised, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” This wonderful promise was quoted by Paul in Hebrews 13:5, and this is the peace that the world cannot give and the world cannot take away, for it is rooted in the eternality of our salvation, of our relationship with Christ and in the fact that the Holy Spirit dwells within us. These are gifts of God Himself and He will not remove them from us.

We can know that we know Jesus will always be with us, for His promises stand forever. In Matthew 24:35, Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” The Word of God is surer than any earthly thing on which man can build his hope. The Word of God is surer than the sun rising and setting; than having food for our table or shelter for our rest. When all these things have become the “former things that are passed away,” II Corinthians 5:17, Revelation 21:4, the Word of God will yet stand unchallenged and unchanged.

With the promises of God in mind, and with the awareness that every word God utters is true, Jesus says to His followers in Matthew 6:34, “Don’t worry about tomorrow because tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof.” Though we may have trials and tribulations that assail on any given day, the promises of God will stand on the day of testing. We who believe in Jesus shall be steadfast and secure though winds of adversity may blow; though the tyranny of unregenerate man may assail, for the Word shall abide and extend beyond today’s trouble and beyond today’s oppressors.

As Isaiah 51:12 admonishes, "Why are you afraid of a man who shall die and the son of man who shall fade as the grass and forget the Lord your God who stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundation of the earth?" We who know the One whom to know is life, John 17:3, need have no fear of mortal men whose only control over us is constrained to time.

We needn’t worry or be concerned about the ‘What if?’ concerns that stir in our minds. We need not fear the foes described in Psalm 91—pestilence, destruction, famine, war, etc.—for “…There shall be no evil befall you, neither shall any plague come near thy dwelling, for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways…”

O, believer in the awesome, majestic, eternal God, our living Christ, stand on His Word and be not faint with fear!