Dr. Rick Mandl - July 9, 2020
Fear Not
Fear Not
Monday July 6, 2020
I was reading this week that one of the common sources of stress in our lives is loss. And there is a lot of loss around us right now. You might lose your job. You might lose your health. You might lose your money. You might lose your reputation. You might even experience the loss of a loved one.
When people go through loss, there are two common reactions. One is fear, and the other is grief. Grief is good. Grief is something that God can use to help us navigate the transitions of life. Fear, on the other hand, can be a bad thing. Not once in the Bible does it say, “Grieve not,” “Sorrow not,” “Weep not,” or “Cry not.” What it does say over and over and over again is “Fear not.”
Someone has said, there are 365 “Fear Nots” in the Bible. One for every day of the year. One difference between grief and fear is that grief doesn’t paralyze us, but fear does.
Someone who was familiar with fear was God’s servant Joshua.
I was thinking about the words that God spoke to Joshua as he was commissioning him as the one who would lead the children of Israel into the promised land.
He said to him . . .
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go. –Joshua 1:9
From a human standpoint, there were a lot of reasons why Joshua probably felt that he should be afraid.
God was calling Joshua to lead the people of God across the Jordan River, into a land where they had never been before.
Moses, his mentor, was gone and now Joshua would be responsible to lead all these people, seemingly all by himself.
His fear was justified.
But I love how that verse, Joshua 1:9 is paraphrased in The Message:
“Haven’t I commanded you? Strength! Courage! Don’t be timid; don’t get discouraged. God, your God, is with you every step you take.”
If there’s a Jordan River in front of you, and you feel like you’re on your own when it comes to crossing it, it’s natural to be afraid.
But if you know that your God, is with you every step you take, then a more logical response than fear is courage.
What’s your Jordan River, the fear that you need to conquer today?
My prayer for you is that if you move forward with God, you will find that something amazing is waiting for you on the other side.
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