During the Great Depression, twenty-five percent of workers couldn’t find a job. Drought had ruined crops and farms. When people couldn’t afford to maintain their homes and livelihoods, they became homeless. During this time, fears became reality. In Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inaugural address, he said something that would become a famous reminder to all those facing fears: “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
Fear can be paralyzing, and our fears aren’t easily shaken from our mind. Whatever the source of fear, when we let it overpower us, it becomes a prison without walls. But this is where God comes in to change the way we face our fears.
Many times our failures keep us from trusting in God’s successes. He has told us multiple times not to fear, to trust Him, and not to worry. Ultimately, God has shown us that our fears can actually be the place where we see God deliver on His promises most vividly.
God told Paul in response to his request to have the thorn in his flesh removed, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Paul realized God had been there beside him throughout all the many trials he’d experienced (2 Corinthians 11:22-33). That helped Paul understand “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
Nearly every story we read about in the Scriptures was in many ways a fearful event filled with uncertainties, dangers, death, rejection, etc. And yet it’s God’s presence in those tough times that become our biggest opportunity to share the good news with others going through trials.
Hebrews 2:14-15, “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
We never want bad things to happen, but we know God has made eternal promises to help us get through them, and that’s news worth sharing!
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