Tami’s Meandering Thoughts

“Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them. Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life. He is the one you should fear. He is the one who should make you tremble. He will keep you safe.”
Isaiah 8:12-13

A month after I graduated from high school a friend died in a car crash. A couple months later, another friend’s younger brother died when he fell off a train trestle onto the rocks far below. So, during the first few years we were married, I cried every time Tim and I needed to be apart for an extended time, begging him not to die! He wisely comforted me with the words, “I can’t control whether I die or not, but I will try to be careful.” Even now, as I drive to Rochester every week, I spend time praying that God would keep my husband and my children safe until I get home. I know I’m not the only one carrying these fears around. I talked with a friend on the women’s retreat who dealt with the same fears as she said goodbye to her family for the weekend. Some of our fears are rational, some are irrational, but many of them are fears based on lack of trust in God.

Did you read the above verses? Isaiah wrote it right after warning the people that the Assyrians would come in and destroy their country. Knowing that during the dreadful days to come fear will grip the people, he warns, “Don’t live in dread of what frightens them.” What? I had to read that verse a few times. Of course they would now be dreading the future. They saw what Assyria was doing to the surrounding nations, the torture, terror and destruction they brought. Now God said the same thing would happen to them, and they are told not to dread it? However, God then makes his point. We so often fear what might happen. We create images and conversations in our minds out of our fears. God reminds us here not to fear the future. Instead, we should fear God. He controls the future.

I believe God is a personal, loving God. However, he also should be approached with awe, reverence and trembling. He holds our lives in his hands. After his warning to keep him holy in our lives, and to approach him with fear, do you see his consolation? It seems so out of place. “He will keep you safe.” Not a complex sentence. Not a beautiful poem. Just a blunt, direct, comforting statement of God’s love and protection.

Now, I don’t believe that means that bad things never happen (the nation did end up going into exile in Babylon), but the message I see in the passage is that we should not fear the future. As long as we acknowledge that God does have control, that he is the ruler of the universe, then we can walk around knowing that God can protect us. God is big enough to take our fears. He’s powerful enough to protect us and to give us courage, strength and love during those times when we are overwhelmed with fear for the future. Jesus’ words ring out, “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34). What fears for the future do you need to turn over to God?