Where can I go in the Bible for encouragement and hope in the face of fear?

Hello. My name is Ron Blue, and I'm asked many times, "Where can I go in the Bible to find some encouragement and hope in the face of fear?" And I would say this--our media drives us always to fear, and fear and faith cannot co-exist. "Perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18).

You hear the Lord Jesus saying over and over and over and over again, "Do not fear"; "Do not fear"; "Do not fear"; "Do not fear." Fear and faith are diametrically opposed to one another.

I tell you where I go frequently when I begin to experience fear, because the emotion of fear is very real. So what I need to do is to go back to God's Word and see what it says.

Psalm 73 verses 23-28 say this, "Yet I am always with you; you hold my right hand. I am always with you. (All the time.) You hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterwards you take me up to glory. Who have I in heaven but you? And I desire nothing on earth but you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

And the last verse says this, "But as for me, God's presence is my good. I have made the Lord God my refuge so I can tell all about You."

Times of fear are great times for the Christian to have a witness to a world that does not know how to deal with fear.

II Corinthians 4 verses 6-18 says this, "Therefore, we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day, (no matter what's going on outside.) For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory. So we don't focus on what is seen (the stock market) but on what is unseen (heaven); for what is seen is temporary (it will disappear), but what is unseen is eternal." If that doesn't give you some hope, nothing will ever give you any hope.
The writer of Hebrews said that Jesus said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."(Hebrews 13:5-6)

And then, two of my favorite passages: Revelation 3:20: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me."

You know, that verse, we use it evangelistically, and it's true evangelistically, but it's really written to the Christians at the church of Laodicea, and the Lord Jesus is saying, "I'm knocking at the door of your heart; I want to come in and have some fellowship with you.” And I would suspect that if I'm sitting at the dinner table with the Lord Jesus, it's going to be really, really hard to be fearful of anything on earth.

And then, Ephesians 3:20 says, "My God will do beyond all that you can ask or think or even imagine.” What an unbelievable promise!

So, fear is a legitimate emotion, but we combat fear by going back to God's Word and realizing that the Holy Spirit will minister God's Word to me in times of great, great fear.


Click here for the January 9, 2009 Blog Entry