#DailyDevotion Don’t Be Anxious. Have Courage! Do Not Fear!
Isaiah 35: 4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”
The Assyrians, a ruthless people who the Nazis based themselves on, were knocking on the door of Judah. They haven rolling over one country after another. Now they were on the doorsteps of Judah eyeing Jerusalem as their prey. It is such a moment the Lord sends this message to the faithful in Judah. Be strong. Fear not! They weren’t a great or large nation. How could they have courage and fear not? Because the Lord gave them a promise. God is coming with vengeance and with his own recompense. He was coming to save them.
You have an Assyria in your life. Its devastation is in its wake. Its wake is all the trials, tribulations, troubles and the like that we experience in our lives. As Paul had spoken a couple of Sundays ago, our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers and evil authorities in the heavens, in the air. Demonic forces doing everything they can do to take down as many of us as they can into the fiery pit with them.
The message from God to Judah is the same to you. “Be strong! Fear not!” For God has come and on the cross and through the grave has taken away from them their mightiest weapon, the ability to accuse us before God of our sins. Death has been defeated, it can no longer touch the people of God, the people of faith. So while it may seem the Lord is against us and the devil and all his angels sit there accusing us, telling us that we must have done something to deserve this tragedy we can hurl back at them, “Truly I may deserve this temporal trouble because of my sins, but sin and death have no power over me. The grave may claim my body temporarily but the Lord of heaven and earth will raise it on the last day and give eternal life to me. You will however be cast into the fiery pit to be tortured for all eternity.”
And even for the earthly struggles of our lives we have three witnesses from the Lord who encourage us not to be anxious. Paul writes, Php 4:6 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Peter writes, 1Pe 5:6-7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, (7) casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” Finally Jesus, our Lord and Savior tells us, Mat 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” Mat 6:32-34 “For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (33) But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (34) “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” So be strong! Don’t fear! The Lord is on your side and he will take care of you.
Heavenly Father, be our strength and might that we may not be anxious but be of good courage and look to you through your Son Jesus Christ for every good thing for our lives now and for the world to come. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.