Your fears have something important to teach you, and I suggest you listen to them.
“Listen to your fears?” This sounds contrary to the advice we expect to hear when we’re fearful. “Ignore your fears” or “face your fears” are much more commonly accepted approaches to vanquishing the fears hiding out in the heart.
But our fears have something important to teach us. And listening to them carefully can reveal both the source of their power, and the key to their demise.
In Psalm 27, the Psalmist David is dealing with fear; real fear of a sort that most of us living in the 21st-century West know almost nothing. But the specific fears he was battling are not important at the moment. What is important is how he deals with the fears. David remembers that the source of his safety, his confidence, and his delight are all found in God himself. He sings,
“One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.”
Psalm 27:4
David’s greatest desire in the world, his one true treasure, is to enjoy intimacy with God. That’s what he wants more than anything else in this life. And he recognizes that he already has the one thing he desires above all else. Nothing can disrupt his relationship with God. His greatest treasure is safe and secure. Therefore David is safe no matter what happens in the world around him. What does he need to fear when his treasure is secure? Nothing. And the same is true for you…unless of course, your treasure is not secure. That is, unless your treasure is not in heaven.
In their devotional book on the Psalms, Tim and Kathy Keller point out,
“…our fears can serve an important purpose–they show us where we have really located our heart’s treasure. Follow the pathway of the fear back into your heart to discover the things you love more than God.”
The Songs of Jesus, 50.
And so I encourage you in these days of fear: listen to your fears. What are you worried about? What are you afraid of losing? A big deal? A relationship? Financial security? A reputation? Influence or position? What is keeping you up at night? As important as that thing or person is, he/she/it is not your greatest treasure. Your greatest treasure is your communion with God through faith in Jesus Christ and that treasure is secure. And in that security is courage.
So take heart brothers and sisters, and take courage: you are your Beloved’s and he is yours. The one thing you cannot do without in this life or the next is the love of God and there is nothing present nor future that can separate you from this love. Allow the fears and worries you feel to expose the idols of your heart masquerading as your heart’s greatest desire. Then hand them over to the God who loves you and gave himself for you…and watch your fears vanish in the blinding light of your true treasure.
Thank you so much for that lesson on fear.,so appreciated.