Episode #191: Why “Don’t Be Afraid” Isn’t Enough: Real Help for Fear & Anxiety – What’s Going On?!

Hey friends, have you ever felt beat up by a Bible verse?

Like, it's supposed to bring you encouragement or comfort or strength or instruction in some really helpful way, but instead it just feels like it's beating you up or weighing you down?

Or maybe like you have this gaping wound in your heart or in your life and someone offers you a Bible verse like a band aid that's somehow supposed to make it all better?

If you can relate to that, first off, I'm real sorry that you've experienced that I have to, and honestly, I've done it to myself and I've done it to other people.

And the topic that we're talking about today is fear. And that's one of the areas where I've experienced this the most, because no matter how often I read the passages of scripture that talked about how I don't have to be afraid.
Each time it did so very little to help me actually stop being fearful.

For a lot of years, I really struggled with fear and anxiety and my best defense was I'd pray, I'd read these verses, and I would try and plan myself out of worry. I really thought that if I somehow planned enough or tried harder, I could somehow work myself out of the worry, or I could work myself ahead of the hard, scary circumstances so I could plan for them and be less afraid. And I remember reading verse 25 from Proverbs 31, and just wondering to myself, how in the world can this woman do this?

Now, let's be real. The whole of the passage sounded impossible to begin with.

This woman never slept. She imported her own food and planted vineyards and sewed sustainable fashion and ran a business and farmed and owned land and served the poor and her family with wisdom.

And then we get to verse 25. “She is clothed with strength and dignity, she laughs without fear of the future.” (Proverbs 31:25 NLT)

She wore strength and dignity like clothing, and after reading this passage, I would sit back in discouragement. How am I ever going to work my way into accomplishing that one? I have encouragement for you today.

If you've ever wrestled with that too, Proverbs 31:10-31, isn't a job description. It's actually an acrostic poem that Jewish husbands would sing over their wives to commend them in front of their children, often during the Shabbat meal, because as it ends at the end of verse 30, it says, “a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.”

And the connection between those verses was like a lightbulb moment for me.

The same woman who fears the Lord can laugh without fear of the future. It's almost as if one type of fear replaces the other.

Evangelist and teacher Oswald Chambers once said, “the remarkable thing about God is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else. Whereas, if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.” The one who fears God wants to please Him and reveres Him and worships Him in awe and adoration.

Ignoring my anxiety didn't do anything and slapping a Believer's Don't Fear for the Future Band Aid over my worry, that didn't help anything either.

But what did help was me growing in my awareness of God, of noticing Him there, of finding opportunities to engage in awe and worship and adoration of Him in the midst of my present circumstances.

We don't live unafraid because a verse told us to. That's not how it works, but we live unafraid when we trust and experience how God is truly there with us. Just like he tells us that he is.

I'm sharing these thoughts with you today as an excerpt from one of my plans on the YouVersion Bible app, and it's called “Fearless Future.” And so if this is resonating with you, I really encourage you to go check it out because one of the fun things I talk about in that plan is how being clothed with strength and dignity, that's also something that comes from being in God's presence too.

But right now, those fears that you might have in this moment, the news that makes you want to throw up the thoughts that keep you awake at night. Tell God about them, take them to him. You don't have to ignore them or avoid them.

You can share these with God and ask him to show you how he's there with you. Isaiah 41:10 says,

“fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10 ESV)

With our question today, we're going to ask God to help us in that way. And here's our question.

God, I want to be one who fears you and can laugh without fear of the future. Please show me, what's one way I can notice you, worship you, or feel you here with me in these circumstances?

Have a good talk.

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