Foster the FamilySample

Day Four

Fear Not

Scripture: Genesis 15:1; Deuteronomy 3:22; Isaiah 43:1

Mikey was the hardest baby I’d ever cared for. Addiction and instability and trauma had marked all three months of his little life.

The night before I was to return Mikey to his mother, I rocked him in my arms. He was fed. He was changed. He was tired. And he was screaming. While I kissed his curls and prayed he’d calm down, the thought flashed in my mind: She’s going to shake him. She’s going to smother him. She’s going to kill him.

That thought was from the pit of hell and the most real part of my brain. I told my mind to shut up. My disobedient brain kept whispering.

Mikey went home. And I was afraid.

God regularly calls His people into the scary. Yet God—or someone on His behalf—says “Fear not” more than three hundred times in His Book. He doesn’t say, “This isn’t scary.” He doesn’t say, “I’ll keep you from anything frightening.” He says, “Fear not.”

Throughout Scripture when God’s people are told not to be afraid, they’re told something else along with it:

“Fear not . . . I am your shield.” (Genesis 15:1)

“Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you.” (Genesis 26:24)

“Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today.” (Exodus 14:13)

“You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.” (Deuteronomy 3:22)

“Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” (Isaiah 41:13)

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 43:1)

It’s not just that I shouldn’t be afraid. It’s that I don’t have to be afraid.

Fear is a sort of forgetting, a focusing on the what instead of the Whom. Amnesia of just how good God is and always has been and promises always to be. Like our traumatized children—who worry each meal if they will be fed, who wonder with each drop-off if we will come back—we look at God with the worried accusation: “But how can I know You’ll do it again?”

If fear is forgetting, then the antidote to fear is remembering. Remembering the promises of God and the character of God, as we’ll explore over the next two days.

God, quiet my mind. I don’t have to be afraid. Not because circumstances aren’t frightening but because You are bigger. Amen.