No, Fear, Not Today

“The Lord is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?” Psalm 27:1

The Psalmist begs a rhetorical question: if God is my light, my salvation, my fortress and my protection, why should I be afraid? The obvious answer is that I have no reason to fear. Yet many of us do struggle with fear or it’s annoying cousin, worry. 

Looking back on my childhood, I have to admit that I was afraid of a lot of things — spiders, snakes, the dark, and thunderstorms to name a few. As a young Christian at the age of 24, God delivered me from the fears of my past. I learned that God had not given me a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind. That verse (2 Timothy 1:7) became an anchor for my soul and one I often reminded myself of when those old fears tried to creep back in.

One night I was reading a Christian book about people who were coming out of satanism. At that time in my life I was completely naive to occult practices and I have to admit that I found the whole concept quite unnerving. While I was reading I felt the enemy of fear come over me like a dark, heavy blanket. I quickly shut the book and decided not to finish reading it. A few minutes later after I had moved on to another activity, the words of today's verse began to sound in my mind. “The Lord is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?”

I thought to myself, “Why should I let some book allow fear to have a stronghold in my life?” God had delivered me from fear and I was not going to let fear have one single victory! I made the decision to sit back down and pick up the book. I read two more chapters before turning in for the night. Once again, God’s word had delivered me from fear. 

Truthfully, if God is your light, your salvation, your fortress and your protection, why should you be afraid? I think you already know the answer.