As infection and death rates rise from the Corona virus so, the enemy is also generating fear. Fears abounding in all areas of life. Fears for health, and for life are obvious but there are also fears for family and friends, fears for jobs and homes, fears for our way of life, our economy and stability.
As God’s people we have the antidote. So many times we are told to ‘not to fear’ or not to be anxious.
In the bible whenever this encouragement occurs we notice two things
1) The encouragement not to fear is never accompanied by the phrase ‘ because there is nothing to worry about’, because invariably there is trouble around and
2) It is usually accompanied by a ‘because I am with you’ or ‘your heavenly Father cares for you. ‘Fear not’ in its various forms appears I believe around 365 times? Jesus tells us to ‘take no anxious thought’ why? ‘Because your heavenly Father cares for us’ Matthew 6 vs 31-34, and Peter tells us to ‘cast every care upon Him’ why? Because He cares for you’ 1 Peter 5 vs 7
God says to us ‘I will never leave you or forsake you’. Hebrews 13 vs 5
We have a heavenly Father who cares for us and we have a savior who chose to call himself Emanuel God with us. He also is called ‘The Prince of Peace’ who said He would give us His peace John 14vs27
During this season many of us will be battling our fears, some people will be alone, or in a relatively isolated situation, and we are reminded of Jesus going alone into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He was ‘led’ into that situation by the Holy Spirit and He came out of the wilderness in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Lord is taking many of His people in this time into a wilderness time where they are having to battle the enemies of fear, worry and anxiety but I believe the Holy Spirit is teaching us in this day to find peace in the midst of very threatening situations. He wants us to come through this time KNOWING like never before the peace of God that passes all understanding. (Phil 4:7 AMP peace which transcends all understanding shall mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus ) and so like Paul we can declare with confidence ‘nothing can separate me from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus my Lord’.
In Psalm 34 David in a time of great trouble and very real threat to his life and declares ‘I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears’. ‘They looked to Him and were radiant; their faces shall never be ashamed’ Psalm 34 vs 4,5
I believe the Lord is saying to us at this time, that He IS our Prince of Peace and that He doesn’t want to just give us peace but that He will be our peace as we invite Him to come and dwell closely with us at this time, and that just as He came out of the wilderness in the power of the spirit, His people are going to come into a new level of peace and trust in Him. We will carry that radiance that reflects who He is, and that every victory that we win – allowing His peace through the Holy Spirit to conquer our fears- will bring glory to Jesus and raise the angelic worship a notch higher
