They are nervous, anxious, trepidation haunts them, fear is a subtle knowledge within them, always hovering around the edges of their lives.
Few will readily admit it, but their lives are almost constantly consumed with “what if.” Loss of income or any financial wherewithal, loss of health and wellbeing, of being wrong, of making a mistake. Of pain and possible suffering. Of old age.
There is not enough paper in my notebook or cartridges for my pen in the drawer before me to compile even a modicum of mankind’s “what if’s,” and they are prevalent in the mind of every human being at one time or another in their lives.
Here, does this verse make it all better, does it make all those fears, which is what they are, all go away?
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” (Phil. 4:6)
Nope, didn’t work did it? At least not in totality. How about this one.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” (1st John 4:18)
How do you feel now, every one of those “what if’s” just disappear? Probably not.
“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Phil. 4:13)
Except conquer that fear of those innumerable possible futures, except stopping completely to care what others think of you. You can do all things through Christ except make those “what if’s” go away.
We have no fear of the past, unless we let it haunt us, unless we will not clear our conscience of it and accept the fact that we are forgiven and hid in Christ. Unless there’s something back there that might finally catch up to you.
In the present, you are the decision maker, you are the one who decides to obey or disobey, to love or not love, to judge with righteous judgment or simply say, “That’s just the way it is and there’s nothing I can do about it.” Defeatism or action, your choice, every moment of today.
Right here, right now.
It is the future where those “what if’s” lay, waiting, plotting, conniving for your downfall, to trip you up, to cause you to lose what you hold dear.
To those this letter speaks to, to those who do not trust in the Sovereign will of the Almighty for their lives, the future is the place of fear. It should not be for us who have been born-again, but for many, if not most, it is.
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” (Jer. 29:11)
But what if?
“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” (John 10:28)
Yes, praise God, but what about tomorrow, what if?
No one on this planet since it was created has ever lived without some form of fear, no matter how small, how short lived. What say you to this?
“And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matt. 26:39)
We are in good company, my friends.
The question is not how you expect yourself to handle those fears when they arrive, but how you handle the unmitigated ones, the ones that have no substance, no form. The “what if’s?”
Oh my friends, if we would just let go and let God be God in our lives. We want to, but we won’t.
There is only one opposite to fear not faced, and that is fear run away from. And that’s the funny thing about those “what if’s,” they are not real, they are imagined as a possibility, and we chase after them of our own free will, we entertain them, we contemplate them at length.
And we stop being anxious for nothing.
It’s your own fault, you know that, right? If this letter is about you, you have no one to blame for your fears but yourself.
“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23:4)
Maybe that verse will help.
