Isaiah 41: 10
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you. Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.
How many times do we need to have God say to us, “Do not fear?” Probably at least once a day. So here is today’s dose. Our Father wants us to know that He is on the job. He is paying attention to us and we should not fear. He isn’t begging us not to be afraid, though. This really appears as a command. And now that I look at the situation from His perspective, it is a bit insulting, isn’t it, that He is our God, our Father and yet we are running around in high anxiety and fear. Our God is Yahweh, He that is and ever will be. Why should we be afraid?
Father goes on to assure us that He is with us. We don’t have to anxiously look around us. We can go with confidence knowing that He is with us always, that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is strength for us so that we need not try to be strong in ourselves. In fact, Paul taught us that in our weakness is strength (2 Corinthians 12: 10).
How do we convince ourselves that our Father is with us; that He will strengthen us and uphold us? I really believe we learn it through the most frightening mechanism of all; letting go. We have to let God be God. We have to relinquish a bit of the control to Him. I like to say that we have to let go of the reins because that paints a picture for me that I can relate to. I really think that for most of us we have to take God out for a test drive. We trust Him with something small and see that all works well when we put situations in His hands and then the next time we are able to trust Him with something a bit larger. The other situation is that get to the point that we are so exhausted that we have nothing left but to trust God. And then, Eureka! It works.
I really wish one person could experience this for everyone and then that we could all just believe that person, subsequently taking this verse as truth on its face. If we could only believe that God and Isaiah actually knew what they were saying. Unfortunately, it rarely works that way. So, instead of asking you to believe me or to believe this verse, I am asking you to give it a try. Take it around the block, kick the tires and see for yourself. God is worthy of our trust. He will uphold you, guard you and protect you. He is your shield and your refuge. Invest a bit of your trust in Him and let Him show you that you have no need in being anxious ever again. Think about it, to never fear again. Now that is a good way to live.
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