No Fear

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

NO FEAR

Prov 27:12

12 The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

NIV

This is exactly the same as we have seen before in Proverbs 22 3. We do not know why this is repeated. Examining the Hebrew text reveals the use of the same words as well, so it is a duplication. The question we need to ask is whether we should just paste and copy that which we saw in the first time we read this or consider something else. However because God saw fit to repeat what he said before, it would seem we should also. Yet there is something new every morning. But the main point remains the same. God is our only refuge in time of trouble.

Ps 46:1-3

God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

NIV

The most used phrase in the whole bible is: Do not be afraid or some variation of those words, such as fear not. Do not be afraid is used sixty-nine times. Do not fear is used eighteen times. Be not afraid is used four times. God has assured us that we should walk with him and in doing so there is no reason for us to fear anything because we are walking with him. It is likened to walking down the street of the worst place in town, but walking with the biggest meanest guy in the neighborhood. No one is going to mess with us because we are with him. Well, maybe they will mess with us, but we can always hide behind him. There is going to be times in our life when trouble comes to us, but we have a choice. We can try to face the trouble head on in our human strength, but that is what the simple do and they suffer for it. If we are prudent, or sensible we will hide in the strength of God, the biggest toughest one in the whole world. God will fight our battles, and if he wants us to fight alone side of him, he has provided us with his armor. Because we know God, because he calls us friend, because he has given us the right to be called his children, we can be assured that he will indeed fight for us and that we can just take refuge in him. There is nothing we should ever be afraid of. We should never be living in fear of anything, even death. There is a freedom in a life of no fear. We do not need to be afraid of sin, which is when we do sin, because we have already been forgiven, he is our refuge. Now should we just sin so we can be forgiven, no certainly not. But the point is we need not be afraid of God when we do sin. He is not going to zap us, or condemn us because we made a mistake. We do not have to fear him, yes, revere him, but we need not be afraid of him for he is our refuge in those times of trouble. That trouble can be from external sources or from internal ones. Someone might cause a troublesome time in our life. When we fail God, when we fall into one of the traps Satan has set for us, we are in trouble, but God is our refuge, he is our strong tower, we can run into him and he will save us. Yet we face trouble from those internal sources, our own heart and mind. Yes, is might be a trap from Satan, but we also know our own heart is wicked, our old nature is hard at work trying to come back from the dead. Yet, if we are prudent, if we know the truth and are aware of the old nature being dead, as we died in Christ and were born again a new creature in Christ than we know we need not even fear that old self that is dead.  So then being prudent, being sensible, let us live with no fear.