Fear Not

Recently a friend of mine got some disturbing news. The kind that makes you sit for long periods of time and ponder what it is that is important in life. The kind that makes you take a look at your past and wonder if you should have done anything differently. The kind that makes you realize that you are not the one in charge and that you have to learn to give up control. The kind that you have to surrender everything you have and are to God.

I have been in this same situation several times in life. If you have ever had any of these life changing days then you probably have felt fear and uncertainty. Or perhaps you are feeling that right now with your own news. What I have learned in my situations is that there is actually good news in these periods of your life. If God was willing to give up his own son for us, then he will be there for us always even in these times of fear and uncertainty. Psalm 139:1-18 tells us of this great love of God for us and how important we are to him. Do not only read these verses with your head but also press them upon your heart. With God we have no reason to fear. Let him give you this peace in the knowledge that he is always with us!

O LORD, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O LORD. You hem me in—behind and before; you have laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me," even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you.