In upstate New York there lived an elderly widow who resided alone. All four of her adult children lived within an hour’s drive, but the old woman loved her independence, and rarely called on them except in case of emergency. So when her oldest son received a phone call from her one morning, asking if he could make the trip to her home as she was in need of assistance, he got in his car and hurried over with a million thoughts racing through his head of what could be wrong. When he arrived at the house, his mother met him at the front door and explained that she believed a burglar had broken in the previous night. She had heard noises coming from a bedroom closet, so she promptly retrieved a hammer and nailed the closet door shut from the outside before going to bed for the evening.
Her son, incredulous, exclaimed, “If you thought there was a burglar in your house last night, why on earth would you wait to call me until this morning?!”
The elderly woman calmly replied, “Well, it was late and I didn’t want to bother you, so I just nailed the closet shut and went to bed knowing you would take care of it in the morning.”
Oh, that we as Christians would have that same attitude when we hear fear knocking at the door! Imagine possessing the confidence to simply “nail the door shut” on our anxieties and worries, knowing that the Son is already in our house to handle anything that comes our way. The truth is, the Lord offers us that very assurance. 2 Timothy 1:7 encourages us, “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.” It’s no accident that the topic of fear is mentioned hundreds of times throughout Scripture. Our heavenly Father knows that until this life is over and we’ve reached the perfection of eternity spent with Him, we’ll constantly face situations that test our trust in His perfect power. Yet as believers, we’re called to be comforted – even emboldened – by the fact that He goes before us in every situation. Yes, that includes the struggles in your marriage. Yes, that includes your difficult financial situation. Yes, that includes your health concerns. It includes whatever has kept you lying awake at night for weeks on end worrying about your child. God has gone before all of it – and He’s made a way for you to get through it, long before you ever even knew it was a problem.
In the words of Oswald Chambers, “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.” There’s such a thing as a “righteous fear” of the Lord, but that fear looks differently than any other type of fear we experience. Righteous fear means that we recognize God’s power, strength, and sovereignty as the Lord of the universe, the Creator of all things, the One in Whom all things are made possible. Righteous fear is putting the King of Kings in His rightful place on the throne of our lives. Not only is there nothing wrong with righteous fear – there is everything right about it. Because when we revere our Lord and Savior, He responds with the gift of peace that surpasses all understanding – a peace that puts all our other fears in the closet and nails the door shut.
So…to fear or not to fear? My advice to you in all things is this: start by putting the Lord in His proper place of authority in your life. Submit your will to His, including all your fears and worries. And then grab a hammer and some nails, knowing you can sleep soundly through the night, for He’ll still be there when the morning comes.
