In tumultuous times, we can’t avoid fear. The times themselves breed it. What’s worse, people seeking power and profit breed exponentially more of it.
Yet even in volatile seasons, we can avoid being ruled and driven by fear. How?
The Proverbs 31 woman shows us what other Scriptures teach us:
The woman to be admired and praised
is the woman who lives in the Fear-of-God.
She always faces tomorrow with a smile.1
We can fight fear of the future with the fear of the Lord.
The promise
See what Proverbs 23:17-18 urges – and what it promises:
Don’t let your heart envy sinners,
but fear the Lord constantly;
then you will have a future,
and your hope won’t be cut off. (CEB)
Hear what David the shepherd-king sang in Psalm 34:7, 9:
The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them.
Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
Read what Isaiah the prophet wrote in Isaiah 8:11-14:
The Lord spoke to me, taking hold of me and warning me not to walk in the way of this people:
Don’t call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy. Don’t fear what they fear, and don’t be terrified. It is the Lord of heavenly forces whom you should hold sacred, whom you should fear, and whom you should hold in awe. God will become a sanctuary. (CEB)
Again and again, our Lord urges us to fight fear with fear. Again and again, he promises: As we learn to fear him, he himself surrounds us and provides for us. He himself becomes our safe place.
The warning
But please let’s not read past the warning God gave Isaiah in a volatile season long ago.
- Don’t call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy.
- Don’t fear what they fear.
Isaiah spoke for God. His heart was set to follow God. He would not knowingly have joined with those who openly rebelled against God. But the Lord strongly warned Isaiah – and strongly warns us – about another very real danger.
Do not go along with those who identify as mine, yet who fear people and things in this world more than they fear me.
Whether such fear involves terror, or awe, or both, it suffocates our faith in God.
It shuts our eyes to the greater reality of our unseen Lord and his unseen kingdom. It minimizes God’s holiness, authority and love, and pushes away his “incomparably great power for us who believe.”
That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” (Eph. 1:19-21)
Focusing our attention on all that looks so threatening, so huge, all that feels so painful and insurmountable – fear tells us and tells us and tells us, “God is doing nothing! We must help him! We must save ourselves!”
If we let ourselves be driven into unbelief by envy and fear, we too will become volatile, and desperate. We will take matters into our own hands. We will set ourselves against God.
And ultimately, instead of resting in the Sanctuary, we will stumble and fall over him.2
Ah, but if we let him, our Lord himself will teach us the fear of the Lord – for that fear conquers every other fear. That fear puts both the earth realm and the spirit realm into perspective. That fear steadies and calms. It ushers in wisdom, deliverance, provision, joy.
The Sanctuary
I do not understand and cannot explain the fear of the Lord. But I know what it is within me. And it is not living in terror of God, as you would of an abusive parent or tyrannical king. People living in that kind of fear do not smile. Especially, they do not smile at the future.
Fearing the Lord is not the same as trusting God or loving God, yet is closely linked with both. It’s closely linked with wisdom too. Indeed:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. (Prov. 9:10)
The fear of the Lord keeps us from buddying up to God, as if the two of us were peers. It keeps us from treating him like a servant – acting as if he exists to make our lives more comfortable, expecting him to come like an errand boy when called.
When God demonstrated his holiness and fierce love on Sinai, Moses said:
Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning. (Ex. 20:20)
When the urge to do wrong obliterates every voice urging us to stop, the fear of the Lord cries out:
Now choose life … by loving the Lord your God, by obeying his voice, and by clinging to him.3
When we find ourselves saying what Job said – “It is God who has wronged me!” – the fear of the Lord keeps us from shaking our fists in God’s face.4 It teaches us to breathe and to grieve until we can honestly, but humbly, approach him in our pain.
The fear of the Lord at once distances us from God and draws us into him. It constantly, clearly, reminds us that he is entirely “other than” and infinitely “far above”:
He is spirit. He is eternally self-existent. He is Creator of a universe so vast and so complex that we cannot begin to comprehend it. He is the Righteous Judge, “the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light” (1 Tim. 6:15-16).
All the satanic hordes inciting a world full of rebellious people cannot diminish the Lord one iota, nor thwart even one of his plans. According to Psalm 2:1-4, when entire nations plot together to vilify the Lord, when they refer to his rule as “chains” and “shackles” and conspire to overthrow him, “the One enthroned in heaven laughs.”
As we treat this Lord with healthy awe, high honor and profound respect, as we choose to yield to him – and to go with him toward what people all around us may be stampeding away from – something incredible happens.
In the most turbulent times – when we don’t know who to believe, or which way real danger lies, or what will happen next, or how we will get through it – our Lord himself encamps around us.
And He shall be a sanctuary [a sacred and indestructible asylum to those who reverently fear and trust in Him]. (Isa. 8:14 AMPC)
Or, as Moses wrote:
The eternal God is your refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.
(Deut. 33:27)
In him, held by him, we too can smile at the days to come.
The original version of this series was published Feb-Apr 2014, and was adapted from the Key Truths e-column, “Smiling Just Thinking About It,” 2008, 2014. The original version of this post was first published March 12, 2014.
Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay
See also
Smiling at the Future series
Might difficult times be key times to learn the laughter born of faith?
- Smiling just thinking about it
- Living in two worlds
- Fighting fear with fear
- Look ahead with hope
Footnotes
- Proverbs 31:30, 25 MSG. I explore Proverbs 31:25 more fully in the first post in this series, Smiling just thinking about it. ↩︎
- See Isaiah 8:14-15. ↩︎
- Deuteronomy 30:19, 20 CEB. To see in context, read verses 11-20. ↩︎
- Yes, Job said that. See Job 19:6 NLT. ↩︎
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