Try Before You Buy (A Dog and A Clock) HERE
Try Before You Buy (The “Thumbs-Up” Man) HERE
Try Before You Buy (When God Blocks Our Path) HERE
Try Before You Buy (Fading Lines, Unfading Hope) HERE
Try Before You Buy (The Day the Milk Spilled) HERE
Try Before You Buy (Where are the Donuts) HERE
Or take a look at one of the readings below:
From God’s Word, the Bible…
In the multitude of my anxieties within me,
Your comforts delight my soul.
Psalm 94:19
Whenever I am Afraid
Most of our fears have to do with our lives or the lives of those we love either being lessened in quality or coming to an end. In Psalm 56:3, David admits to being afraid. To be afraid is to be “filled with fear or apprehension.” That word “afraid” is all too familiar! We are often filled with fear and apprehension.
Many things can lessen the quality of our lives or the lives of our loved ones—sickness, financial reversals, family discord, world conditions, and many other things. There is no shortage of things to bring about apprehension!
And the biggest one of all is death itself! How many people have proudly marched through life as if they were in control and as if they were sufficient for everything, only to tremble and cower when they came to death’s door! Haughty and proud in his disdain for Christianity, skeptic David Hume whimpered at death: “I am affrighted and confounded with the forlorn solitude in which I am placed by my philosophy … I fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable, environed in the deepest darkness.”
The David who wrote Psalm 56:3 was the man who stood fearlessly before Goliath. But he was “very much afraid” when he took up his pen to write this psalm. He was in the land of the Philistines, where he did not belong, and it seemed to him that King Achish would soon snuff out his life (see 1 Samuel 21:12). But David collected himself, looked to God, and wrote: “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.”
“Whenever” means “at whatever time,” or “at any or every time.” In Psalm 56:3, it is a beautiful word! At whatever time or at any time David finds himself gripped with fear, he will trust in God. Every time he is afraid, he will trust God. Trusting is always the great antidote for fearing.
Are you, like David and so many others, frightened by the thought of death? Trust in God! He has both made glorious promises regarding death and has shown Himself to be utterly faithful to His promises.
What has God promised about this matter of death? He has promised His people will not face it alone, that He Himself will meet them in the “valley of the shadow” and will shepherd them safely through (Ps. 23:4). He has promised that at the very moment of death, the souls of His people will go immediately into His presence (2 Cor. 5:6-8). And He has promised that the bodies of all those who belong to Him will finally be raised from their graves, re-joined to their souls, and will forever be with Him in eternal glory (1 Thess. 4:13-18).
What promises! But please note that these are promises God has given only to His people! Not all are His people. Those who are not in a right relationship with Him have His promise that they will face Him in judgment and will be driven forever from His presence (2 Thess. 1:8-10). That will cause any thinking person to really be afraid! (Luke 12:4-5).
Are you afraid of that immensely sobering time when you will have to stand before God in judgment? God has given a promise for you to trust. He has promised that He will forgive all those who trust completely in His Son, Jesus Christ, and in what He did on the cross for sinners like you and me (John 3:16,36; 5:24; 6:47; 1 John 5:11-12).
Those who believe in Jesus can rejoice in these words from the Apostle Paul: “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” (Rom. 8:1).
Afraid? Don’t be! Trust God’s promise to save sinners and then trust His promises to take care of His people. Make it your policy to say to God: “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.”
Read a few of the typeset pages HERE or activate the graphic below.
