Are you fearful, anxious, or worried?

Did any of us, a few short weeks ago, imagine what has happened on a global scale? Has any present-day incident generated more questions world-wide than the present pandemic? Are you fearful? Anxious? Worried? I think we could all agree that if questions like “Why?”, “What if?”, and “How long?” were currency – we’d all be rich. We seek answers.

Yet, the answer we have right now – that is real – and readily available, addresses our fears. Fears which seem to run rampant. In fact, the current lockdown is monopolizing our daily routines and fueling those fears. Why?So many of our daily distractions have been removed. Yet, fear is that distressing and unsettling emotion stirred by uncertainty. Fear is produced when emotion overtakes sound thinking and peace is banished. And, fear is a toxin that paralyzes hope.

Fear… the Root of Our Questions

I write of fear, because truth be told, it is often this very emotion that drives us to know the “what if” and the “why” and the “how long.” Fear coerces us to define what we are incapable of clearly understanding. And the result of this is mental anguish and unrest. Fear is that constant enemy of the mind that harasses it with impending “worst case” possibilities either real or imagined.

What can we do? Really, what must we do in times like these to subdue the repeated and corrosive offensive of fear? Times which show the incompetence of mere human reasoning… times in which the news is not medicinal but kindling for worry and impatience! Truly, it is no time to look inward, but it is the right time to look upward!

“While it looks like things are out of control, behind the scenes there is the true God who hasn’t surrendered His authority.”

A.W. Tozer

While we can’t explain away our current situation, we don’t have to live under the dominion of fear. Stop looking inward, look upward! The answer to fear is trust. Trust in the Creator, the Savior, the One who holds all the answers.

Anxiety and Worry… the products of our fear.

Are you anxious, filled with insecurities, hopeless? Is there no peace? Is there no rest? What kind of thoughts currently envelop you mind? Our answers can certainly be evidence of fear’s existence. My intent here is not to bring indictment, but to agree that we all fear. We all wonder! We all speculate! We all question. We all try to work out solutions, and we all unfortunately “lean to our own understanding” especially in the midst of adversity and trial.

Trials are intended to make us think, to wean us from the world, to send us to the Bible, to drive us to our knees.”

J.C. Ryle

Again, we must look upward, not inward! “To send us to the Bible” is the difference between a pain killer and a vaccine. One simply makes the situation bearable, the other deals with the root. Psalm 119:24 says, “Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.”

David killed both lion and bear while keeping his father’s sheep! (I Sam 17:34) David killed the champion of the Phillistines with a sling. (I Sam 17:51) God forbid David to build a house for the Lord because he was a man of war. (I Chr. 28:3) Yet, this same David cried in Psalm 55:5, “Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me…” And again, this same David said in Ps 56:3, “What time I am afraid I will trust in thee.” David looked upward, not inward!

He (that feareth the Lord, vs.1) shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.”

Psalm 112:7

The Answer to Our Questions

If this pandemic has done anything for me personally, it is this; it has reminded me how quickly and drastically everything can change; it has reminded me that what we often presume to be securities in this life are but a vapor; it has reminded and reaffirmed that humanistic self-reliance and positive thinking are useless; it has reminded me that a shallow sentimental view of God is insufficient! (James 4:8-10) So, what about that fear, worry, and anxiety? It has reminded us ALL to look upward and not inward!

I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Psalm 34:4

Pastor Alan

Categorised in: Pastor Alan