LAMENTATIONS 3:55-57 – “I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’ “
THEME OF THE DAY: THE PROPER RESPONSE TO FEAR. How do we respond when circumstances come upon us tempting us to fear? What do we do as situations we cannot control or change want to put us in a vise-grip of fear? Well, we really have two options. The second one comes from today’s scripture and the example of the prophet Jeremiah. The first one I am about to unfold.
When tempted to be afraid, give into fear, and become emotionally, even spiritually, paralyzed by these powerful emotions, we may become fixed upon the circumstance or situation that quickly becomes an obsession. We lose sleep. We retreat from people, maybe attempt to retreat to our own little world of isolation. We constantly mull over and over the fear. Gone is the joy of the Lord. Welcome doubt and unbelief. We are in the bondage of sinful fear and anxiety that in and of ourselves will be like a hamster on a wheel. We cannot free ourselves. What is at stake when fear defines us is our gospel witness. We are the poorest of testimonies of the power of the Gospel to free us from all fears. And in a very real way, we are disobeying the many commands of God of “Do not fear”, like the one in today’s scripture to Jeremiah. So, if this is our response to fear, we are placing ourselves in a spiritual and emotional jail with no key on the “keyring of self” to unlock the doors. Miserable Christian defines us.
But the other response comes from today’s scripture and the example of Jeremiah. Here is the context. The prophet cries out from the depths of the pit. This is literal and emotional. First, the literal pit – So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard, letting Jeremiah down by ropes. And there was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud. When Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern—the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate— Ebed-melech went from the king’s house and said to the king, “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they did to Jeremiah the prophet by casting him into the cistern, and he will die there of hunger, for there is no bread left in the city” (Jeremiah 38:6-9). When we read the prophet is calling on the name of the Lord from the pit, he was really in one; a cistern with no way out.
We may extend this to pits in life that are emotional and spiritual. It is being in those dark places of fear, being afraid, and it feels like we are stuck in pits with no way out. And what does Jeremiah do? He prays.
Jeremiah goes to the only place for help – his God – I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea, ‘Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’ You came near when I called on you; you said, ‘Do not fear!’
There is no hope in man or ourselves. Friends, fear is only conquered by faith and faith is exercised through believing prayer revealing a trust in the God who delivers from fear. Prayerlessness intensifies fear. Prayerfulness delivers from fear.
So, when the temptation suddenly comes upon us to be afraid, to give into fear, stop and remember Jeremiah. Look away from ourselves and our “pits” and draw near to the God who commands us, “Don’t fear”, always remembering when God gives a command, He gives the power to obey it.
PRAYER: “Father, help me to always run to You in prayer when fear seeks to spiritually and emotionally paralyze me.”
QUOTE: “In times of fear, don’t mull over the circumstance that intensifies the fear. Take it to the Lord in trust and rest.”
In the affection of Christ Jesus,
Pastor Jim