Don't Be Afraid

Daily Reading: Daniel 10

Again one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. And he said, "O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage." And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, "Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me." (Daniel 10.18-19)

Devotional Thought: I had come through an exceptionally difficult season of ministry.  All the telltale signs were there: withdrawing from people, struggling with even simple decisions, vacillating emotions, taking every problem personally.  One day, though, I heard from God.  It was unmistakable … indisputable … and a bit unnerving.

Daniel had his own encounter with God in chapter 10, and God "spoke" to him, the way he had to Moses at the burning bush, to Joshua at the Jordan River, to Mary when he informed her she was pregnant with the Messiah, and to the shepherds on the hillside outside Bethlehem: “Don’t be afraid!”  Whenever God steps into our lives in an obvious way, one of the first things he says is, “Don’t be afraid.”

Fear can bring about several undesirable and unwelcome outcomes.  It can cause us to stay quiet when we should clearly speak up, to seek consensus rather than the voice of the Lord, to care more about being comfortable than being conformed to the image of Christ, to reduce the size of God and elevate the size of the issue we’re facing.  In short, fear can incapacitate and immobilize us, preventing us from doing the work the Lord wants us to do.

Every great servant of God has had to, at some point, conquer their fears.  May we allow the Holy Spirit to do that kind of empowering and enabling work in us.

John Whitsett

Prayer: Heavenly Father—you know my proneness and bent toward fear.  Help me, like all your effective servants, to follow your voice and not the fears that I sometimes experience.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 69.6-12

6 Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, O Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be brought to dishonor through me, O God of Israel.

7 For it is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that dishonor has covered my face.

8 I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s sons.

9 For zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

10 When I wept and humbled my soul with fasting, it became my reproach.

11 When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

12 I am the talk of those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.