PSALM 56:3-4 – When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?”
THEME OF THE DAY: WHEN I AM AFRAID. Before we move into the theme of today’s nugget, there is a “bonus” lesson for us. Remember the words the Lord Jesus spoke to the devil in His wilderness temptation concerning the Word of God? He said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4). Our Lord didn’t say, “Some of the word of God”, or “Most of the word of God” but every single word. Don’t miss this. Every word in our Bibles matters. Even the ones we may not pay much attention to, like the one starting today’s scripture – “When.” Here is the man after God’s own heart, David, being afraid. Yes, afraid. His situation made him quite fearful. The Philistines were seizing him and they were not his friends. And David admitted he was afraid. He didn’t cry out “If I am afraid” but “When I am afraid” and that means it is okay to be fearful, even as a Christian. What is not okay is staying in a state of fear and being paralyze by it. And now the lesson of the day.
As we may know, the book of Psalms is the greatest hymnbook ever penned. It is THE BOOK for worship. Did we also know the book of Psalms is the greatest prayer book ever penned? If we struggle for words in our prayers, and yes, there are times we will, pray the Psalms. Even today’s Psalm when we feel the overwhelming temptation to be afraid. Borrow David’s prayer and do what David did when he was afraid. He ran to God.
There is another example of this godly response when tempted to be afraid. It is Joseph. The background of the following scripture is his soon to be encounter with his brother Esau. They had not been on speaking terms for a long time. Esau was bitter toward his brother for deceiving him and wanted him dead (Genesis 27:41). Obviously Jacob was afraid, and pay attention to what he did. He sought the Lord. He prayed, all night and earnestly. Here is the full account – And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, “We came to your brother Esau, and he is coming to meet you, and there are four hundred men with him.” Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed. He divided the people who were with him, and the flocks and herds and camels, into two camps, thinking, “If Esau comes to the one camp and attacks it, then the camp that is left will escape.” And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude’ ” (Genesis 32:6-12).
The questions before each of us are “What do we do when fear comes upon us?”, “Are we be consumed with our fearful circumstances, fret and lose sleep?” or “Do we follow the examples of David and Jacob and go to the Lord in prayer?” How we answer reveals our closeness to the One who said, “Fear not, it is I” and promised to strengthen us in our fears.
PRAYER: “Father, thank You for giving me access to You through Your Son that I may know Your peace when I am afraid.”
QUOTE: “Who we immediately turn to in times of fear tells us how close we are to the One who said, ‘Fear not, it is I.’”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim