There Goes The Fear Again

Do you ever struggle to be fearless? I think we all do. We're all human. We have circumstances that seem insurmountable and situations that seem hopeless. We get discouraged and exhausted. Imagine being fearless! Never worrying, never being afraid to try something outside of your comfort zone, and never being surrounded by a constant cloud of fear. It would be wonderful, right? Well, I have good news. You can overcome fear and keep it from dictating your life!

In Zephaniah 3:12-13 (we're going Old Testament with this one!), God spoke to Zephaniah (one of the OT prophets) about the "day of hope," the day when Jerusalem would be occupied by God's people once again, a people pure and dedicated to serving God. What kind of people would God use, exactly? Verse 12 states that they were both "meek" and "humble," and that they "[trusted] in the name of the Lord." We're going to break down that sentence before going on. I looked up the definitions of "meek" and "humble;" the word "meek" means "gentle and enduring," while "humble" is defined as "not proud, not...showy." These words are mentioned first to establish the type of person God was going to use in His country. The next line really caught my attention though! The end of verse 12 says that these people "trust in the name of the Lord." In order to put all of your trust in God, you would have to know who He was. Think about it. Would you just hand off your child to someone you don't know? (If you don't have a child, substitute something pretty important to you.) Obviously, these people knew God and were confident in Him, so much so that they could trust him no matter what.

And now comes the most amazing part. Verse 13 says that these people used by God will "...eat and lie down, and no one will make them afraid." Right? That's pretty incredible. Because these people trust God and know Him so well, they know that nothing could be greater than Him, ever, and they will not be afraid unless they choose to be. As long as they are looking at God and have complete confidence in Him, fear has no place in their lives.

Fear is something that we all experience, but if we let it run our lives, we can't be the people we were meant to be. Besides, God has not given us a spirit of fear. This part of scripture was challenging and encouraging to me, and I hope it is to you as well.

And if you get the song reference in the title, I want to be your best friend.