“Why shouldn’t I be afraid? There’s good reason to panic!”

All through Scripture, every time a heavenly entity shows up, the first thing he blurts out to puny humans is, “Don’t be afraid!” And with good reason, we might add. After all, if an angel suddenly appeared in this office or my living room — I’m talking about the kind of mighty angels we see in Scripture, not some chubby cherub from medieval paintings — my first impulse would probably be to have a heart attack on the spot.

We rarely have the response of the humans who receive this command not to be afraid, but doubtless some could have argued that there is plenty of reason to be afraid. In this day when “men’s hearts are failing them out of fear” (Luke 21:26), we have no trouble whatsoever finding causes for our torment and panic and worry.

However — and this is the heart of the Christian message — we have even better reason not to be afraid, to be courageous and bold even.

Here are three favorite variations on this theme found in God’s Word —

“Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” (II Kings 6:16) The prophet Elisha spoke to his servant who had just gone out for the morning paper and found himself face to face with the army of the Arameans who were encircling the city, there to arrest Elisha. A moment later, the prophet asked God to open the eyes of the servant. Suddenly, he saw the skies filled with the hosts of heaven. It was quite a reassuring moment.

“Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria nor because of the multitude which is with him, for the one who is with us is greater than the one with him. With him is only an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles.” (II Chronicles 32:7-8) King Hezekiah is addressing his citizens who have taken a look at the mighty Assyrian army just outside the gates and are ready to hand them the deed to the place. Sennacherib, the pagan king, cannot believe that Hezekiah is hesitant to surrender. After all, he has conquered everything in his path, including the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Now, tiny little Judah and its capital of Jerusalem are balking before him. The very idea! He sends messengers to Hezekiah with one of the greatest questions anywhere, a real testament to the faith of this leader. He asks, “What is this confidence you have?” (32:9) I love it! (Sure wish someone would ask me that.)

“You are from God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.” (I John 4:4) This reads like John has been studying his Old Testament stories, doesn’t it. In 1960, as a sophomore at Birmingham-Southern College and a newly baptized member of West End Baptist Church, the youth named me as pastor for their annual Youth Week in the church. Consequently, I got to preach the Sunday night sermon. (Mind you, this was a full year and a half before the Lord showed mercy and called me into the ministry.) The text — I have no memory whether it was assigned or what — was this passage from I John 4:4. Struggling with building a sermon from it forever burned its assuring truth into my mind and heart.

In both the II Kings 6 and II Chronicles 32 passages, it’s helpful to note that no one had to ask the people to look around and see all the reasons for panic. They were obvious. The enemy was at the gate and he was roaring with threats. Hearts were failing. The most natural thing in the world was to shiver in one’s skin and shake in his boots.

God doesn’t like it when His people fear.

In fact, He’s offended by it. Fear before the enemy is a vote of no-confidence in God and gives courage to the wrong people.

The Lord said to Jeremiah, “Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you,” and “Do not be dismayed before their faces, lest I dismay you before them.” (Jer. 1:8,17) Here are two great reasons for any preacher not to get stage fright before his audiences: the Lord is alongside us and He has promised to humiliate us if we do.

Over and over the Lord reiterated to Joshua that he was to “be strong and courageous” (Deut. 31:6,7,8,23, and Joshua 1:6,9,18) as he prepared to assume the leadership of God’s people. By this we assume Joshua was timid and hesitant to exert real leadership. However, with so many commands from the Lord, I expect Joshua got the point!

So, what’s frightening you today?

Do you have a God or not?

In last Sunday’s sermon, Mike Miller, my pastor, told of his conversation with a professor in another denomination as they engaged in a little doctrinal give-and-take. Mike was surprised when the brother said, “I envy you.”

“Why?” he asked.

The professor said, “Your God is so much bigger than mine — and it has to affect every area of your life.”

So, how big is your God?

Unable, just now, to locate my copy of J. B. Phillips’ “Your God is Too Small,” for a quote from him on this subject, I did the next best thing. In Mark Buchanan’s excellent work called “Your God is Too Safe,” I located this:

“In 1961, J. B. Phillips wrote a book called ‘Your God is Too Small,” a thin, sharply worded and prophetic call to give up our modern fetishes and idols, the cherished but foolish myths we have about God. We have made God man-size, Phillips argues. Or smaller. In our hands, God has become our image bearer, rather than we His. The god we worship is a shallow repository of all our idle wishes and half-baked whims. Phillips exposes those tendencies, explodes those myths, and then issues a call to return to the true God of mystery and sovereignty and intimacy, the God revealed in Jesus Christ.” (p.14)

This better than anything explains why sincere, believing Christians still fear — fear other people, fear public opinion, fear rejection, fear sickness-disease-death-unemployment-necessity-you name it — because our God is too small.

I’m not suggesting anyone enlarge his concept of God. Just that we get to know God as He is.

That’ll do the trick.

“If (or better, ‘since’) God is for me, who can be against me?” (Romans 8:31)

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?

The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

…………………………………

Though a host encamp against me, I will not fear.”

(Psalm 27)

Now, let’s get on with the program. Hold your head high, Christian. You are an overcomer, a winner, a child of the King. Let’s hear some laughter from your direction. Enough of the nay-saying and pessimism. You are part of the winning team and your Champion is the Lord of the universe.

You are so blessed.