Do Not Be Afraid

January 2020 – Grace & Truth Magazine

Do Not Be Afraid

Looking at the world’s condition as we begin another year, it is surprising that believers are still here, waiting to meet the Lord in the air (1 Th. 4:17). The long-echoed hope continues: “Perhaps today.”

Sadly, the bad state of affairs is in the so-called “Christian” world too. David felt this way about the Lord’s people, Israel, hundreds of years ago when he wrote: “Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men” (Ps. 12:1 NKJV). People were saying at that time, “With our tongue we will prevail; our lips are our own; who is lord over us?” (v.4). “Our ... our ... our” – is that not the attitude we see everywhere we look? The “our” and “my” ways among men and women has existed from Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve fell into sin. The serpent’s – Satan’s – mindset persists: “The wicked prowl on every side, when vileness is exalted among the sons of men” (Ps. 12:8). What an accurate description for the society in which we live!

In contrast, those of us who feel oppressed and who sigh enjoy the promise of the Lord: “I will set him in the safety for which he yearns” (v.5). Certainly an application of that promise for true Christians will come when we are in the Lord’s presence, whether through physical death or the rapture. Still, even while we wait for that moment when we will leave this scene, safety is found in the “words of the Lord” (v.6). They, the verse continues, “... are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” His words are perfect and extraordinarily valuable.

The question then for us is: “To what extent do we value the words of the Lord?” They have been given to us in the 66 books of the Bible. Every single book is important, one book helping us to understand another. The study of Scripture must be done carefully, as taught by the Spirit of God. Consider what the Lord said as He spoke to His disciples, tying His words together with peace: “These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (Jn. 14:25-27).

By Paul Alberts