News reports come every day concerning economic and political calamities about to befall us all, not to mention famines, tornadoes, earthquakes and volcanoes, things that may at any moment strike us or people we love. There are always plenty of good reasons to be afraid—unless you know that things are under control. A Christian has this inside information. Things are, in fact, under control. God is our Refuge, our Strength, our Mighty Fortress. Nothing will get by the moat of His protection without His permission. To be afraid of what happens today or what may happen tomorrow is not only an awful waste of energy, is not only useless, but is also disobedient. We are forbidden to fear anything but the Lord Himself.
When Christians in China were being hounded to death in the 1930’s, one of them (I am told) wrote this simple song, which has helped me in countless times of fear ever since I learned it as a high school girl:
I will not be afraid.
I will not be afraid.
I will look upward, and travel onward,
And not be afraid.
Willpower, of course, will not always overcome human emotions. But willed obedience to the One who is in charge, coupled with prayer for His help in vanquishing our natural fears, is something else.
**Excerpt originally published in A Lamp Unto My Feet, pg. 84-85.