Fear and Trust

 Sunday my pastor preached from Psalm 23. When expounding on verse 4 “I will fear no danger”, he said that trust overcomes fear. So true, and I’ve been contemplating that for the last few days. When our faith/trust is in God, we have no reason to fear anything or anyone else, neither human nor demonic. We know that God is All Powerful, All Mighty God. All creation is subject to Him.

When talking about faith and God’s gift of forgiveness and salvation, we sometimes use the illustration of sitting in a chair. We can say that we trust that the chair will hold us up, but we don’t put our faith in it until we sit. A few days ago, I sat in a chair on my back porch. I may have more “plopped down” than sat, so I believed the chair would support me. But when I plopped down, I heard a “POP” sound as the weld broke. The point I’m trying to make is that there is nothing on this earth that we can truly trust: not furniture, not family, not governments, not weather forecasts, not vehicles. You get the picture. All things earthly are flawed because of sin. God is the only One we can trust completely. He Alone is worthy of our faith.

How can we, why do we, trust God completely? Because of Who He IS. We can absolutely trust Him, but this is the paradox. Before we can trust Him, we must fear Him. 

Deuteronomy 10:12-21 HCSB 12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul? 13 Keep the Lord’s commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good. 14 The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the Lord was devoted to your fathers and loved them. He chose their descendants after them—He chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today. 16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. 19 You also must love the foreigner, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 20 You are to fear Yahweh your God and worship Him. Remain faithful to Him and take oaths in His name. 21 He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome works your eyes have seen. 

We see in these verses that the reasons we fear Him are also the reasons we trust Him. Everything in Heaven and Earth belong to Him. He created us, knows our sinfulness yet still loves us. He is God of gods, and Lord of lords. He is great, mighty and awesome. He does not show partiality. He is just. He provides. He does great and mighty things. Because of Who He IS and what He does, He wants us to fear Him, walk in His ways, love Him, worship Him with all our hearts and all our souls. He wants us to be obedient to Him, be faithful to Him, worship Him and praise Him. Jesus’ incarnation, sinless life, teaching ministry, miraculous signs, sacrificial death, powerful resurrection and glorious ascension provide for us even greater things than the People of Israel had seen when this passage in Deuteronomy was spoken. Romans 5:8 tells us that He loved us so much, even when we were sinners, that Jesus died for us. Romans 12:1 tells us that presenting our bodies as living sacrifices is our reasonable worship. Because of His love for us, we submit to Him in faith and trust.

Psalm 19: 1-14 HCSB The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky proclaims the work of His hands. 2 Day after day they pour out speech; night after night they communicate knowledge. 3 There is no speech; there are no words; their voice is not heard.4 Their message has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun. 5 It is like a groom coming from the bridal chamber; it rejoices like an athlete running a course. 6 It rises from one end of the heavens and circles to their other end; nothing is hidden from its heat. 7 The instruction of the Lord is perfect, renewing one’s life; the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy, making the inexperienced wise. 8 The precepts of the Lord are right, making the heart glad; the command of the Lord is radiant, making the eyes light up. 9 The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever; the ordinances of the Lord are reliable and altogether righteous. 10 They are more desirable than gold—than an abundance of pure gold; and sweeter than honey, which comes from the honeycomb. 11 In addition, Your servant is warned by them; there is great reward in keeping them. 12 Who perceives his unintentional sins? Cleanse me from my hidden faults. 13 Moreover, keep Your servant from willful sins; do not let them rule over me. Then I will be innocent and cleansed from blatant rebellion. 14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

In Psalm 19 David describes more reasons for us to fear and trust God. All creation declares His glory and imparts knowledge. He created the universe and sustains it. There are no words to describe Him. His instruction is perfect. He renews our lives. He is entirely trustworthy. He gives us wisdom. His precepts are always right. He gives us gladness. His commands are radiant. Because we can have a relationship with Him, He lights up our eyes. He is reliable and righteous. He is more valuable than gold and sweeter than honey. He gives us words of warning. He is Lord, Rock and Redeemer. In verse 9 David says “The fear of the Lord is pure.” Think about that for a minute. Are any other emotions of fear that we experience pure? In Luke 12:4-5 Jesus teaches His disciples not to fear those who can kill the earthly bodies, but rather to fear God, who has the authority to throw them into Hell. In John 14:27 Jesus tells His disciples that His Peace overcomes fear. Romans 8:15 teaches us that we have no reason to fear because we call God “Daddy”. Because of Jesus we can have a personal relationship with God the Father. The pure fear of the Lord overcomes all other fears.

Psalm 25:12-15 HCSB Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will show him the way he should choose. 13 He will live a good life, and his descendants will inherit the land. 14 The secret counsel of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He reveals His covenant to them. 15 My eyes are always on the Lord, for He will pull my feet out of the net.

When we fear the Lord, He will show us His ways. He will guide us in the decisions we make, He will bless us. He will be with us. He will protect us. Because of this we should always keep our eyes on Him. 

John writes that there were not enough scrolls to write all that Jesus said and did. All of scripture testifies to Who God IS and all that He has done, the reasons we should fear Him, yet fear no other. Fear of Him is pure, based on Who He IS but fear of anything else is temporal and useless. There are not enough words to declare Him, so there’s no reasonable end to this post. Like the old song, “This is the Song that Never Ends.” So, this post ends in mid thought as we allow the pure fear of God to give us complete trust in Him Alone. As Pastor said, “Trust overcomes fear.”