God in the Midst of our Fears

One of our greatest enemies are the fears in our hearts.  Fear is the root of our worries and obsessions that often carry us to places we would rather not be.  Psychologists know this.  Many counseling strategies are formed to help the patient see their fears and overcome them by understanding that their fears are often habits of thinking that are not rooted in reality. 

An example of this is a person who grows up in a troubled home.  As children, we cannot understand why our family or parent is struggling, but the child learns over time that they do not feel safe and the trauma of a parent’s obsession, addiction, anger, or whatever sin is on display, distorts the way a child sees their world.  Interestingly those same sins a person grows up with, often follow them into adult life. 

For me personally, I have learned to cling to Psalm 27 where we read the testimony of King David who wrote, “The Lord is my light and salvation whom shall I fear… even if an army encamps around me I will not fear or war breaks out against me I will still be confident… for the Lord will hide me in his shelter on the day of trouble.”

When we look at the life of Jacob in Genesis, we see a man deeply influenced by fears rooted in a home of conflict.  Jacob means “one who deceives.” Just a casual look at his life shows us a man who grew up in a world of dysfunction.  His father loved his brother Esau more, because Esau was a great hunter while was a man that dwelt among the women.

Despite the prophecy that God gave his mother Rebekah that it would be through him that a great nation would come, Jacob still swindles his brother and then even his father out of the inheritance.   We also saw how Esau, feeling tricked and betrayed by it all, vowed to one day murder his brother Jacob. 

But one of the great things about Jacob’s life is that despite all the family drama and tension and conflict, God prevails and teaches Jacob through his worst fears and sins.  These were at the root of Jacob’s compulsion to manipulate and deceive.  But God over time would teach Jacob to trust Him.   

I love the testimony of Jacob after God proved Himself to Jacob again and again that God was His refuge and strength, Genesis 32:10, “I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.”   This is where God ultimately wants to lead us, despite all of our anxieties.  God can be trusted to lead us to a safe place, despite our greatest fears.

Yes indeed, God is our light and our salvation and our stronghold, and when we believe that, we can say with the Psalmist, “thought an army encamp around me, I will not fear… for the Lord will hide me in His shelter on the day of trouble and set me high upon a rock.”  (Psalm 27:1-5)