The Key to Fighting Fear
KRISTEN WETHERELL
Listen to this devotion
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” Psalm 56:3 (ESV)
I’ll
never forget the sight of our first ultrasound images. Tears pooled in
my eyes as I considered the delicacy of our baby’s sweet frame, and the
precision of how our Creator had knit her together in my womb. My
husband felt the same sense of awe.
Yet in the next breath: fear.
I
would consider myself to be fearful by personality. A Type A
perfectionist, I struggle when I’m not in control, when people
disappoint and critique me, and when I fail. Then, there are those
struggles with fear that come from pain and suffering in this broken
world. But nothing — nothing — has come close to the fears that arose
when I found out I was pregnant and after I caught sight of the precious
life in my womb.
What would the future hold? Would our baby be
born healthy and strong? Would I be safe in the process? What if we lost
the baby? What if …?
Friends, the list of our “what ifs” is
never-ending. So are the number of our fears. Perhaps you, like me, are
terrified of what could unexpectedly happen to your kids, your husband
or your loved ones. Maybe you’re afraid of what the doctor will report
about your test results, or maybe you just lost your job and wonder how
you’ll make ends meet. Maybe death haunts you — when it will come, how
it will come, what it will mean for your eternity.
When it comes
to fear, I’ve been immensely helped by Scripture, God’s very
breathed-out Word that reveals who He is. In Psalm 56:3, King David
writes, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” Not if, but when,
David says. He knows that fear is a stubborn, persistent enemy of the
human heart; and he also knows that the only realistic and effective way
to fight fear is to continually put his trust in God.
Now,
“trusting God” sounds like a good and right thing to do — but if we’re
honest, it can feel like an empty platitude. I just found out I have
cancer. What do you mean trust God? We wonder in these cases if God is
truly trustworthy, and if He is, then how are we supposed to trust Him
when our fears loom and our faith fails?
What David says in Psalm
56:3 helps us because fighting our fears isn’t a one-and-done act, but a
continual practice. Trusting God is the same: It doesn’t necessarily
mean our fears vanish. It means we know where — and to whom — to go with
them. Again and again.
We fight fear with an even greater fear:
the fear of the Lord. Because God is good and in control, He is worthy
of our reverence and awe. Not only this, but He has demonstrated His
trustworthy character by sending His Son to rescue us from our greatest
and most fearful plight: deserved punishment for our sin. And since
Jesus rose from the dead — since He defeated the thing we should most
fear — we can trust Him. When we are afraid, we can go to Him. We can
ask Him for hope and help continually.
As we keep coming back to
Jesus with our fears, He will increase as they decrease. And that’s the
key to fighting fear: to know Jesus, trust Him, worship Him —fear Him.
Heavenly
Father, You are worthy to be feared. Thank You for giving us Your Son.
We are fearful women, and we want to put our trust in You. Help us to
fear You and to keep coming back to You with our fears. Give us the
power and perspective to fight fear by revealing Your trustworthy
character to us and by growing us in our worship of You. In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.