We read a lot about fear in the Bible. That makes sense as the Bible is filled with people who were persecuted and pursued, whose very lives were often threatened by people in authority. There are people who were betrayed by their family, those who traveled to distant and enemy lands and those who led their people in battle against those enemies. These people had many reasons to fear, yet throughout Scripture they are commanded not to, because of the faithfulness of God.
However, although life-threatening situations can certainly promulgate fear, there are other reasons that we become afraid. There’s fear of an unknown future when the uncertainty of life seems all too real. There’s the fear of unrealized dreams when we realize that the opportunity to do that which we desire seems to have passed us by. And there’s the fear that comes when our carefully laid plans never materialized and we realize how little control we actually have.
Yet just as the faithfulness of God should quell the fear of those whose lives are in jeopardy, so does His faithfulness calm the fear of those whose future is unclear. As Psalm 34:4 tells us:
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
That word “all” holds such promise for us. It’s not only the fear that we know that God will deliver us from, but the fear of the unknown too.
As we trust in Him, His faithfulness will continued to be revealed. And we will find that we have no cause for fear.
