Be afraid, be very afraid - Devotion for 9/22/08

Be afraid, be very afraid – Devotion for 9/22/08

I must admit, one of my favorite messages in the Bible is the whole “fear not” theme that is found through out. In my mind I am drawn to Joshua when he first took over as the leader of Israel, and all the times in the first chapter of Joshua that God had to tell him, “fear not.” I am drawn to the story of Gideon in the book of Judges, and the way the angel of the Lord had to console him telling him not to fear. And still I am always pulled toward the passage where Jesus walks out on the water, and when the disciples are filled with terror believing him to be a ghost, Jesus reassures them, “Fear not, for it is me.” Being the “fraidy” cat that I tend to be, I need to hear those words quite often to maintain a posture of strength in the midst of the storms.

But this morning in my devotion time I read from Psalm 33. We do not know who actually wrote Psalm 33, but this anonymous hymn of praise calls on the righteous to praise God because the dependability of his words and works. All of that is well and good, but the part that gets to me today is verses 16-18: “The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope for His lovingkindness.”

What hits me about that today is that so many of these “fear not” passages found in the scripture are said to mighty men of valor – Joshua the warrior, Gideon who would lead a rebellion, the disciples who would lead a revolution. And while they are being told to “fear not,” it certainly has nothing to do with their physical stature. As the Psalm says, the king isn’t saved by a great army, nor a warrior by his strength. The fear we have is a very real demonstration that we recognize how dependant we are upon God. The fear the Psalmist speaks of is the fear that comes with knowing there are some things that we cannot control by our own strength and might.

So many times in life we live things the “safe” way, where we stay in control and where we think we don’t have to fear anything. I guess what’s really hitting me today is that if we don’t have some fear in our lives right now, maybe we aren’t living as courageously and dependently upon God as we should