Don’t Fear

 June 21, 2022

Jesus utters strange words in Revelation 2:10

“Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Why would we not be afraid if we know we are about to suffer? Imprisonment, trials, even death awaits God’s faithful ones, but don’t be afraid? Our culture thrives on fear. Turn on the TV, go online, listen to the radio—if it makes the news, it’s pretty sure to be hyped in such a way as to make us fear, because fearful people are more easily controlled. 

For the past two years, we’ve masked, quarantined, social distanced, been vaxxed, double-jabbed, and boosted. If we didn’t react the way we were supposed to, we couldn’t travel, eat out, or attend concerts or sports events. We were bombarded with daily stats on infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. Now we’re hearing that maybe all these precautions weren’t as effective as we had been told. But the experiment succeeded. We now know how easily the populace can be manipulated. Fear is a terrible thing in the hands of the wrong people.

We have lived in fear for the past 30 months, not because anyone put a gun to our head, but because we thought we might get sick and die. Of course, some did, but how many were the result of Covid, we’ll never know. Just ask the nursing homes in New York State.

Fear of the future doesn’t change the future, but it surely changes today. The future will come, but in reality, it never does. It always remains the future. If we allow uncertainty of what lies ahead of us to rob us of our joy today, we’ve lost both the present and the future to fear. There’s no guarantee we’ll be kept safe, as so often we pray. Actually, the opposite is promised—not safety, but persecution, prison, and even death. In spite of all this, we are not to fear. Why?

The answer is simple, though not necessarily easy to swallow. Whatever happens to us here is temporary. Jesus gives us the long view when he offers a crown of life. The first death is nothing, he asserts. It’s the second death we want to avoid. We do that by becoming overcomers. To become an overcomer, there must be some trouble, some difficulty, some challenge to overcome. God doesn’t intend for life to be smooth sailing because an easy ride doesn’t produce the character he prizes. If we understand that troubles are part of his plan to shape us into a people of character, integrity, faith, and love, instead of fearing those troubles, we may even learn to appreciate them.