What are you afraid of?
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Maybe your initial response is, ‘I’m not afraid of anything’, or maybe you can immediately list the things that frighten you.
Snakes? Bad drivers? Burglars? Ill health? Lack of money?
Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me
- Psalm 23
Death?
The loss of a loved one?
Some of our fears change over the years, although some of the fears that we had during childhood may well continue.
The fear of things going ‘bump’ in the night?
The fear of some animals?
The fear of strangers?
The fear of being embarrassed?
Some fears are quite natural, and it is healthy to be afraid of certain things.
Others are based on our own past experiences and so we won’t take the risk of getting into a certain situation again.
Other people may judge some of fears as being irrational, as in turn we may do the same about some of their fears.
Fear is a natural human response.
Sometimes the thing that we are afraid of does happen, and other times we will manage to avoid it for our whole lives.
God knows people and knows that we are prone to fear.
So again and again we read in the Bible the message from God, which is also sometimes passed on through people and angels – ‘do not be afraid’ or ‘peace be with you’.
This was said to the people who encountered Jesus when they first met him after his resurrection.
A message of faith is not that bad, or frightening things will not happen, but that when they do, we have hope and strength that will help us to get through and which can provide us with a peace that goes beyond human understanding.
Perhaps one of the best-known examples of the call to not be afraid is in Psalm 23, and I finish with these words:
‘Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no danger because you are with me.
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.’