Free from Fear

“I sought the LORD, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears.”

What does it mean to be delivered from our fears? Does it mean that, in some miraculous way, God will suddenly take away or keep from happening all of those things which we are afraid of…or is it something more? To be delivered from an intense fear of water, would that mean all the world’s oceans would dry up? To be delivered from a fear of spiders, would all the world’s spiders die? I don’t think so. Either of these things happening would mean massive—and I do mean massive—problems for the rest of the world. Besides, what if another believer were intensely afraid of drought? How could God reconcile a situation like that?

So then, by this reasoning, it seems only natural to conclude that it isn’t the feared object/event that is removed, but that the fear itself would no longer be able to hold us in its claw-like talons. Here’s a prime illustration from my own life. Money has never been “abundant” in my family, and there are times when I’ve gone through weeks of worrying about not being able to even take care of the basic expenses (worry is just another word for fear, so don’t get caught up on the difference there—there isn’t one). I’ve prayed, begged, pleaded, and just generally whined about this situation on and off throughout the years, but God has never swooped in and showered money on my family. Things continue to be a struggle—sometimes a very great struggle—and the object of my worry (lack of money) is never miraculously taken away (i.e. by money just “being there” all of a sudden, or something like that). However, there have been times when things were looking really, really bad, yet I wasn’t afraid of what might happen. I wasn’t worried. I had handed the problem over to God, calling out to Him, and He had taken it and released me from the fear and doubt surrounding it. He delivered me from my fears.

So what’s going on in your life that you find yourself worrying about or fretting over? How can God deliver you from your fears today?