Tag: Hebrews 13:5

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Psalm 23 ~ For You Are With Me

Dear Sister,

The past few months I have been learning about all the ways that God is not like us. Most recently, I learned about God’s omnipresence or his “all present-ness.”

Part of being God means that he is fully present everywhere – not just in space, but also in time: in the past, the present, and the future. He is not like us when we try to multi-task with our attentions divided; he is fully present everywhere that he is. He is just as much present with the persecuted church in China as he is with the constitutionally protected church in the US. He is there when life is brought into the world and he is there when it is snuffed out. He watches over everything in every place of his creation and there is nothing that happens that he is not an eye-witness of, which brings me to today’s passage. 

In Psalm 23, we learn that God is our shepherd. Thinking about the role of a shepherd we can know that God watches over us, protects us, and leads us (v. 3). When we wander, he seeks after us, finds us, and restores us (v. 2). When we are downtrodden or anxious, he comforts and calms us (v. 2, 4).

I love knowing that God is my Protector and my Comforter but my favorite part of this passage comes in verse 4: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.”

The past two weeks I have felt God working in my heart in a special way. I know God is always working but sometimes it’s hard to see and we don’t always feel it. However, his current work in my life has become tangible in a way I haven’t experienced in quite some time.

Learning about how God is fully present everywhere all the time floored me. It made me cry to realize that God never has to ask me how my day was or how I slept because he has neverbeen away from me. He loves me – and you! – that much!

He loves us so much that even in the “valley of the shadow of death,” he is right there beside us. In the dark places that we don’t want to expose to anyone, he is there. In the struggle against cancer, he is there. In our most miserable – and most sinful – moments he is there. He neverleaves us and because he never leaves us, we no longer have to be afraid – not of man, not of tragedy, not of anything!

Psalm 23 is not the only place where we find that God is with us. Over and over again, God promises to be with his children, to never leave them or forsake them (see Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 43:2, 5; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5). God is so serious about this promise that he even intertwines it with one of the names of Jesus. In Matthew 1, it says “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us” (1:23).

So, dear sister, I hope this reminder renews your faith and increases your hope. I hope it motivates you to resist temptation, knowing that when we sin we do it in the sight of God. I hope it comforts you in your grief and strengthens you in your struggles. And most of all, I hope it brings you rest – knowing that your Shepherd cares for and protects you, casting out all fear. 

Walking with you,

Kayla

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The Bondage and Blindness of Fear

 

My Dearest Sister,

 

Do you remember learning to swim when you were a kid? You learned in the shallow end first, trying to figure out how to coordinate kicking and paddling with keeping your head above water. A parent was probably right there with you, holding you up and cheering you on. Once you had the shallow end figured out though, it came time to move on to the deep end. For me, I remember standing at the edge of the pool, looking into the deep water just beyond my toes and being terrified I would just sink right to the bottom. My dad was in the water, holding out his arms, encouraging me to jump. He assured me he would be right there to keep me safe. But still, I was afraid. I wanted to leap right in and prove that I could swim but I just couldn’t force myself to move. Fear of not being able to swim had petrified me. Eventually I did jump and my dad caught me like he promised. However, I distinctly remember that crippling feeling of fear that had caused me to doubt, both in my ability to swim and my dad’s ability to protect me.

Fears, even our silly childhood ones, are powerful aren’t they? They makes us feel weak and helpless. When allowed to run rampant, our fears become a form of bondage. They can even hinder our faith. You see, when we give in to fear, it keeps us from living life like we serve a sovereign God who has our good in mind. That is why fear is one of the devil’s favorite weapons against us, because it works so well at bringing us down and making us forget just how powerful our God really is. The good news is, we don’t have to believe these lies from the enemy. We can break free from the captivity of our fears by first remembering the truth of God’s word. Romans 8:15 says “For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out ‘Abba, Father’.” Because of God’s marvelous grace in sending His Son to pay the price for our sins, He set us free from this bondage of fear by adopting us into His family. The word “Abba” here is a more intimate name for one’s father, like “Daddy” or “Papa”. To Him, we are not just some non-related adopted kid; we are His beloved children and He is our wonderful Daddy! And like a child who is afraid, all we have to do is cry out to our Father, our loving Papa, and He will come to our aid. Hebrews 13:5b-6 assures us of this as well: “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we may boldly say ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Unlike some earthly fathers, God will never walk out on His children. He will always be there to help us, not matter what we are up against.

One of my favorite stories about overcoming fear comes from 2 Kings 6:8-23. Here it is in a nutshell: The king of Syria was angry at Elisha for revealing the secret location of his army to Israel, so he sent a great army to the city where Elisha was staying. When Elisha’s servant woke up in the morning and saw this massive army with all their horses and chariots surrounding the city, he was terrified (I don’t blame him!). He runs to Elisha and says “Master! What are we going to do?” And I can imagine Elisha sitting there, maybe eating a bit of breakfast, and as calm as can be assures his servant that everything is going to be okay. He says in verse 16, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” The passage goes on to say that “Elisha prayed, and said ‘Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” Wow! I love how amazingly powerful that story is! Elisha knew all along that God would protect him, never leaving or forsaking him. He knew the Lord intimately as his helper, his Abba Father, and so he had no need to fear, even when an entire army was against him.

Even though Elisha’s servant had probably seen some pretty amazing things in his time with this prophet of God, his first response to a daunting situation was driven by fear. He was so worried about the situation at hand that he forgot how powerful his master’s Lord was. When I am afraid I admit that I feel a lot like Elisha’s servant. My human weakness wants to focus on the source of my fear and doubt sets in. I become bound by it and panic like Elisha’s servant did. Even though I know God is powerful, my fear keeps me from being able to see it. So overcoming fear is not just about knowing God promises to never forsake us; It’s about looking past what we are afraid of so we can see that He has been there with us all along. I don’t want to be like Elisha’s servant and be blinded by my fears. I want to be like Elisha and be able to see God’s presence so clearly in my life, that there isn’t even a chance for me to feel afraid in the first place. I want to have that same unwavering confidence and faith that my Father is with me wherever I go, through whatever danger or struggle I face.

Beloved sister, if you are crippled by fear in your life and can’t see the army of protection God has around you, just cry out to Him like Elisha did for his servant. Cry out “Abba, Father!” and ask Him to open your eyes to see the truth of His protection and power. Ask Him to change your perspective to see things not with blinded human eyes, but through a spiritual lens where God’s presence is evident. As children of God, we shouldn’t live under the bondage of fear. Instead, we should embrace the freedom that our Father has provided for us, so that we may boldly declare “The Lord is my helper! I will fear no more!” We should be able to stand like a little child at the deep end of a pool and jump without a second thought, knowing that our Daddy – our beloved Abba – is there with outstretched arms waiting to catch us.

 

Your Unafraid Sister in Christ,

~ Lauren