In life, fear will work to invade atmospheres of peace. Anticipate its attempted intrusion and let it at the door meet full force conviction. The following are a selection of verses in scripture that help us to do just that: to dismantle fear's power and dissipate fear's presence with the conviction that our God is stronger, wiser, and more able than any foreboding thing, person or situation.
While each of the following help us to restore peace, their greatest impact is made when they are deeply founded in faith. The more time we spend deep in scripture, in prayer and communication with God, the more powerfully we are able to dispel fear. The more faith we give God to work with, the more readily and systematically do we disassemble the machination of fear.
If read chronologically, the Bible is essentially a tracking of mess to order. Through the lives of Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus and so many others, we can see God working arduously, skillfully within details to ensure a specific outcome. Revelation 21, all things made new; no fear, no tear, no death, no sorrow, no pain. Scripture is an example of how our God is able to work all things for good despite close and persistent threat. From an eternal perspective, lifelong perspective and day-to-day perspective God rescues us and solves our problems. Fight the panic and hopelessness of fear with the love letter God wrote specifically for you.
- Matthew 6:33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
God understands that our responsibilities accumulate here; there is so much we have to do and be to have a full life. In response to that, He teaches us to swap the burden of those responsibilities for this one opportunity: seek God. The sixth chapter of Matthew encourages us to pursue our relationship with God, for while we do, He will take care of everything else.
God is able to wield and forge and arrange the details of our lives to culminate in the growth and betterment of our life and character. The more pieces we put into His hands with faith in His skill, the more comprehensively He is able to sculpt our lives.
- 2 Corinthians 5:7 For we walk by faith, not by sight.
Fear will fight faith: can God handle it? Will God handle it? And if so, how? Fear is concerned about the journey but faith is secure in God's path. Faith is stalwart in the belief that He can and He will so efficiently that the how is irrelevant. God calls us to seek Him with our whole heart and whole soul; He understands that if we do give our entire attention to Him, we will need Him to take care of what is unseen in our periphery and ahead in our path.
- Acts 2:21 And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Quite simply, we do not need to fear because when we vocalize our distress, He rescues. In the Old Testament, Jehoshaphat is seconds and dozen spears away from death but because he used his last seconds to call to God, he was saved. The situation was literal for Jehoshaphat (see 2 Chronicles 17), but for us it is often metaphorical. Fear is oppresses, stifles, and pervades but use those last seconds before it closes in completely to call to God. It has been declared that He will answer and that He will save.
- Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Find a haven in the fact that God has purpose for you, purpose He established in advance. He is intentional with your life when you allow Him to position His will within it. God has plans for you to do good work, not to sink or fail. Would God prepare failure or destitution for you in advance? No, that would not require planning. If that were His plan, He never would have even introduced Himself to us. He would have just let us flail about. Remember that God has made plans to craft your life for good.
- Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.
God is really talented. He is the original abstract-artist. He compiles unlikely materials and welds them into a masterpiece. From our perspective, our life might look like a pile of unusable, non-valuable junk. But from God's perspective, our life is a challenge He has already artistically mastered; to Him, our life is a pile of materials that only He can see the connections in. In desperate situations, when the outcome looks bleak, trust that God's artistry is more advanced than our limited view.
- Matthew 6:8 Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.
Speaking of our limited view, Jesus stated frankly that God knows what we need better than we do, before we do. It's like driving only to suddenly find that the bridge is closed! We panic for an alternate route! But God knew that bridge was closed before we even buckled our seat-belt and planned accordingly, which is why it is so imperative that we have submitted ourselves to His plan!
Jesus did not want us to be like the rest of the panicked world because as children of God, we have already been provided for. God has planned our course and therefore He has already accounted for it's turns and divots and barriers. Before we realize them and before we ask for help through them, He already has a plan through them. He will lead you forward, usually incrementally, at a pace that requires faith. He will deliver you directly into the provision you require.
God knows what we need; He is an informed and attentive Father. He is fully prepared to fill our biological, emotional, and spiritual needs. He is fully prepared to compensate for our inadequacy, and supplement our deficiency, in friendship, relationship, profession and whatever else. If with live our lives with righteous intent, God will provide.
- Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
God knows what we need... and better than we do. Moreover, He emphatically pursues and creates and intercedes to ensure that we get it! God's wisdom is able to discern between what we think we want and what we actually need. In moments of fear, trust that God is interceding on your behalf. He knows what prayer will rescue you from your fear and utters it on your behalf. He speaks your rescue into the universe and into existence.
We might think a certain circumstance would rescue us from a fearsome outcome; it would cause us to pray for the wrong thing. How blessed is it for us that God bats those nonconstructive thoughts away and replaces them with constructive action?
- Isaiah 43:1-3
But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob,
And He who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
You are Mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.
When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,
Nor shall the flame scorch you.
For I am the Lord your God,
The Holy One of Israel, your Savior;
We have been claimed by God. God will take care of what belongs to Him; He has promised to accompany us through our journey, its difficulty and its joy. He has declared Himself our savior. He chose the word savior because of our tendency to need saving!
Sometimes humans adopt animals without understanding (or committing to) the responsibility of pet ownership. But God knew what the adoption of humanity would require and He committed to it. We are an accident-prone bunch. We need constant saving and so God became our savior. We have been adopted by God, He is going to take care of His family.
But, Father cannot help us if we have run away from home. In time of fear (and also joy) return home to be provided for, to be saved.
- Jeremiah 29:11-12 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
God's intentions for our lives are pure. He designs a future we can look forward to. He takes our prayer into account; His blessings are tailored specifically to who we are as individuals.
- Luke 12:32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
God delights in witnessing our joy. He delights in providing our joy. The life He plans for us is filled with people and circumstances that were planned by Him to make us feel safe and happy. In this verse, God affectionately soothes our fear. Take a deep breathe of hope and love, little flock, it gives your Father joy to shower you and protect you with the power and provision of His kingdom.
The term of endearment is not random: God is our shepherd. We are His little flock of sheep. We are inherently naive and vulnerable (as well as beautiful and kind) and He loves us for our delicacy. He protects it at all costs.
- Matthew 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
We can only truly bask in the promise of God's provision and protection if we feel eligible for it. Good news! Jesus told us how precious we are to God, how precisely we are loved. We are valuable to Him, worth the effort we require. He knows every minute and intricate detail about us not because He has to but because we wants to.
God loves all of His creations, for example: the tiny sparrows in the trees. God has designed a planet to sustain them, too, has He not? The environment He created supports their provision and protection. God wants us to know that if He did it for the sparrows, He will certainly do it for us.
- Psalm 116:1-11
I love the Lord, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
Then I called upon the name of the Lord:
“O Lord, I implore You, deliver my soul!”
Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
The Lord preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
I will walk before the Lord
In the land of the living.
I believed, therefore I spoke,
“I am greatly afflicted.”
I said in my haste, “All men are liars.”
Take courage from this psalmists relationship with God. From a hopeless situation, God restored. A desperate cry, God heard and answered. From trouble and sorrow God saved. From the lowest point, God raised. The psalmist had no one in the world to trust but had God and He was more than enough.
God dealt bountifully with the psalmist's soul. God does not flippantly toss scraps. He blesses abundantly, intentionally. He rescues triumphantly. He loves emphatically. With conviction dismiss fear and allow yourself to be embraced by the perfect love of God.
- 2 Chronicles 20:12 For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”
Jehoshaphat was surrounded. Out-manned. Over powered. Out-witted. In that moment of complete fear, he fixed his eyes on God. Though the moment sounds panicked, Jehoshaphat solemnly relied solely on his faith. When we lose our chance, our weapon, our hope and even the will to fight, we must finally fix our eyes on God.
Sometimes it is only when we realize and accept our inability that we see the benefit of trusting God. God's strength and ability begins working for us the exact moment it is activated by our faith. Jehoshaphat knew that from God's perspective a way could be made. Surrender, never to your enemies but always to God. Put your weapons down and allow Him to become your defense.
- 2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.
God wants us to feel secure in His qualifications for our rescue and defense:
His omnipresence is vigilant, fastidious and alert.
His omnipresence is vigilant, fastidious and alert.
- Nothing escapes His notice. His children are so valuable to Him that is present everywhere to support them.
His omnipotence is powerful, unmatched and undeterred.
- No force is able to contend with Him; He wins with ease.
- He owns all wisdom, all knowledge, all reason, all logic, all science, all sides, all forms; whatever it is, He has both created and mastered it.
God wants us to have conviction in His ability to render the fear in our life mute, powerless and irrelevant.
- Luke 11:11-13 "If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
When we adopt the Christian lifestyle, we are adopted by God. We were always His creation, but we become reclaimed. As claimed children, we have ownership within our Father's kingdom. We become possessors of His love and kindness, God's mercy and protection. We can expect our lives to unfold in accordance with His will. And God's will for us is good.
Jesus more than gave us permission to ask, Jesus encouraged us to ask God for our myriad of needs. He told us that we would receive. From Jesus we learned that we cannot expect that God will hear and respond with action and deliverance. For God's children know what to ask for; we ask for God. We ask for His will over our life. We ask for the peace and protection and provision He has promised. And Jesus assured us that God is fully aware of a good gift.
God has offered peace and protection and provision because He knows that ultimately, every need we have is stemmed from a need for those three things. When we ask God for those things, why would we ever expect or fear that He would answer with their opposites?