Are you fearful? Anxious? Worried? Do you wonder why situations arise or difficulties seem to plague you?
Fear seems to run rampant in our culture. Yet, fear is produced when emotion overtakes sound thinking and peace is banished. And, fear is a toxin that paralyzes hope.
Fear is At the Root of Our Questions
I write of fear, because truth be told, it is often this very emotion that drives us to know the “what if” and the “why” and the “how long.” Fear coerces us to define what we are incapable of clearly understanding. And the result of this is mental anguish and unrest. Fear is that constant enemy of the mind that harasses it with impending “worst case” possibilities either real or imagined.
What can we do? Really, what must we do in times like these to subdue the repeated and corrosive offensive of fear? Times which show the incompetence of mere human reasoning… times in which the news is not medicinal but kindling for worry and impatience! Truly, it is no time to look inward, but it is the right time to look upward!
While it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes there is the true God who hasn’t surrendered His authority.
A.W. Tozer
While we often can’t explain trials and difficulties, we don’t have to live under the dominion of fear. Stop looking inward, look upward! The answer to fear is trust. Trust in the Creator, the Savior, the One who holds all the answers.
Anxiety and Worry are the Products of Our Fear
Are you anxious, filled with insecurities, hopeless? Is there no peace? Is there no rest? What kind of thoughts currently envelop you mind? The answers can certainly be evidence of fear’s existence. My intent here is not to bring indictment, but to agree that we all fear. We all wonder, we all speculate. We all question. We all try to work out solutions, and we all unfortunately “lean to our own understanding” especially in the midst of adversity and trial.
Trials are intended to make us think, to wean us from the world, to send us to the Bible, to drive us to our knees.
J.C. Ryle
Again, we must look upward, not inward! “To send us to the Bible” instead of other options is the difference between a pain killer and a vaccine. One simply makes the situation bearable, the other deals with the root. Psalm 119:24 says, “Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.”
David killed both lion and bear while keeping his father’s sheep! (I Sam 17:34) David killed the champion of the Phillistines with a sling. (I Sam 17:51) God forbid David to build a house for the Lord because he was a man of war. (I Chr. 28:3) Yet, this same David cried in Psalm 55:5, “Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me…” And again, this same David said in Ps 56:3, “What time I am afraid I will trust in thee.” David looked upward, not inward!
He (that feareth the Lord, vs.1) shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.
Psalm 112:7
The Answer to Our Questions
If trials or difficulties have done anything for me personally, it is this; they remind me how quickly and drastically everything can change; they remind me that what we often presume to be securities in this life are but a vapor; they remind me and reaffirm that humanistic self-reliance and positive thinking are useless; they remind me that a shallow sentimental view of God is insufficient! (James 4:8-10)
So, what about that fear, worry, and anxiety? It has reminds us ALL to look upward and not inward!
I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalm 34:4
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