So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10
God tells His people, “Do not fear.” Fear is a natural response to a crisis or danger. It is the first emotion recorded in the Bible (Genesis 3:10). When something is bigger or stronger than us, we fear. When something is out of our control, we fear. In the case of Adam and Eve, disobedience caused them to step out from under God’s authority and protection and they felt vulnerable to danger.
So how do we reverse this fear cycle? How do we take the truths we read about in Isaiah 41:10 and make them our reality in the midst of crisis? Here are some steps to help you with this process.
Step 1. Repent and Fear Not!
The first simple step we can take is to repent of any sin, and to repent of any fear. Here’s a simple prayer, “Father, forgive me for letting my fear get between me and you. Lord, I take my eyes off my fear and place them on you.”
Step 2. Fix Your Eyes on Jesus
God says, “For I am with you.” Even if you don’t feel him with your senses, He is surely there. When we live in a posture of surrender, God is our protector. We can have faith that His word is truthful. “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). If step one is to take our eyes off the thing we fear, step two is the fix our eyes on Emmanuel – God with us, and to draw our strength from His presence.
Step 3. Move Forward
Notice the Lord says, “I will strengthen you and help you.” Fear causes us to rush decisions out of anxiety or to make decisions out of feeling paralyzed or inadequate. God wants to resettle us in His perfect peace. This is why worship can be an effective tool; we start meditating on God’s strength and not our weakness. Once we make decisions based on His peace and not our fears we can move forward with His strength. We simply need to ask: “Father, we ask for YOUR peace; YOUR wisdom; YOUR confidence; YOUR resources.”
Step 4. Stay Strong
“I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” Once we’ve moved forward in God’s strength, He will sustain us. God’s “right hand” has to do with His rulership. When we listen to God for direction, and we move forward in His peace, we can be confident that we are not building our own kingdom or living ad hock out of our own ingenuity. Our decisions are based on God’s plans and not man’s. “Unless the Lord builds the house its builders labor in vain.” We want to be careful that our business or family decisions are based on the Lord’s plans and not out of self-protection or self-promotion. When we are doing God’s work, God provides us with the resources and the materials necessary to fulfill His plans.
2 Timothy 1:7 says it well: “God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of self-discipline.” Don’t let anxiety or pressure start to warp how you think or respond. God is with us. He will never leave us. We can trust that He has the solution to every problem we face.
Tags: worship, faith, fear, peace, crisis, isaiah, meditation
