Have you ever been afraid? How should Christians respond in the face of fear?
Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #67 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.
If you have never been afraid, you probably have not yet lived long enough.
Being afraid is not necessarily weakness or inability to take action. It is an emotion God built into us to help protect us, like responding with Fear, Fight, or Flight.
While not all of us have felt afraid due to outside influences, like riots, wars, hurricanes, or famine, if we’re old enough, we’ve probably felt concern morphed into fear at the announcement of a loved one’s serious illness or disease.
The reason we experience threats to our well-being that elicits fear is that we live in a fallen world. Since the Garden of Eden, the perfect Creation has labored under the impact of human sin and degradation and what’s called the Fall and the Curse. When Adam and Eve sinned, the fell from grace. They no longer were perfect as God had created them, but they became dead in their sins, and every human being since has been born in sin, is dead in our sin, and remains so until we accept Christ’s sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection – we are forgiven and redeemed. This is the Good News of the Gospel.
Yet still we live in a sin-cursed fallen world wherein the consequences of sin remain. These consequences include so-called “acts of God,” those weather events like tsunamis and volcanoes and earthquakes over which humanity has no control, and also the frailty of our bodies. Because of the curse, it is required of all human beings that once they die (Heb 9:27). So, living in a fallen world, our bodies age, decline, are subject to injury, contract illnesses or life-threatening disease. In the face of all this and more, we can be afraid.
But the Psalmist reminded us, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise—in God I trust and am not afraid" (Ps. 56:3-4).
“I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears” (Ps 34:4).
In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul said, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:6-7).
Can you even imagine what that phrase, “transcends all understanding,” even means? No, we cannot, because that’s the point, the peace God offers us in the face of anxiety is beyond our comprehension.
Back to the Psalmist David. I sometimes think David would fit right into the social media age in which we live because he understood how to express his feelings and was not bashful about letting it all hang out when he was afraid, or whatever other emotion that plagued him. He told God everything.
But then David did not stay there. He did not seek to “know himself” or “trust his feelings” or “follow his heart” because he knew they were already an anxiety-filled mess. No, he looked outside himself.David looked to the Sovereign Lord of the Universe. After David had listed his fears, and talked about the “agony in his bones” or “drowning,” “crying in his bed,” then David rehearsed God’s character and promises:
God “delivered from fear,” he said. If I am downcast, God is my hope. When David’s heart was faint, he said God is his rock, his fortress, never shaken.
I don’t think this recipe for deliverance from fear or anxiety is a one-time pill, good for what ails you forevermore. No, rehearsing God’s character, his past works, his promises, this we must do over and over again, each time fear threatens to overwhelm us.
We pray, we talk to God. He promises to hear and answer our prayers.
David said of the Lord: “Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does” (Ps 145:13).
I’ve been afraid a few times in my life. As I grow older, I’ve experienced other fears, sometimes for those I love, not for me. If God allows me to live, I anticipate I will experience fears again.
But praise be to God, he will never leave me or forsake me.
The lyrics of the hymn, “Because He Lives,” captures the biblical truth:
“Because He lives, I can face tomorrow,
Because He lives, all fear is gone;
Because I know He holds the future,
And life is worth the living just because He lives.”
It is a great comfort to know that our Heavenly Father is always there watching over us.
“The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore” (Ps 121:7-8).
Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. For more Christian commentary, check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com.
And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2023
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