There is a lot in this world that seems worth being afraid of. Terror and violence are in so frequently in the news that it seems like a little fear would be justified. Our own faults seem like plenty to worry about even without anything else.
'Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!'
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
People rightly wonder what difference faith can make in such a world. Do we walk differently from others or do we also stumble in the face of fear?
Jesus said to the Twelve:
"Fear no one.
The world is watching to see if our faith makes a difference. Faith is supposed to make a difference. We recognize the dangers that exist in our world but we remain confident because God is with us.
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
The LORD is with us. He holds our souls in his hands. The worst the world can do is kill the body. That is ultimately a very short term problem in the light of eternity. When trials do come we need to remember that God is aware of what is happening to us and that he loves us.
Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge.
Even all the hairs of your head are counted.
When we realize we are loved the fear can no longer control us. His perfect love begins to cast out our fear (see First John 4:18). The enemy really wants to keep us afraid so that we won't be good witnesses to Jesus. But the world needs to hear what was spoken to us. We cannot and must not leave it in the dark.
What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light;
what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.
It is a gift of grace that changes everything. It isn't something we earn. We don't finally become people immune to fear because we somehow rework our inner psychology to no longer experience it. Instead, the love of Jesus comes to us from outside of ourselves and shows us that, even in the face of our greatest fears, love is greater still.
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.
Let the heavens and the earth praise him,
the seas and whatever moves in them!
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