When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you. (Psalm 56:3)
“Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid;
for the LORD GOD is my strength and my song,
and he has become my salvation.” (Isaiah 12:2)
Charles Spurgeon once preached a sermon that is a treasure to me. The title of the sermon is the inspiration of this devotional: “Fearing and Trusting – Trusting and not Fearing.”[1] Spurgeon preached the sermon from the two texts above, brilliantly and pastorally addressing his congregation and describing the reality we live in as Christians. Here is the reality of a Christian mind and a gracious God. We aspire to say, “I will trust in the Lord; and by trusting in the Lord I will not be afraid.”
We know what that’s like. We know the times when we are trusting in the Lord and we’re not afraid. But the Bible is also realistic, and God is compassionate and knows our frame (Psalm 103:14). Therefore, David articulates something else we experience: “when I am afraid, I will trust in you” (Psalm 56:3). This is the reality in which we all live. We resolve not to be afraid, but we know there are going to be times when we are afraid. Those are the times when we need to trust the Lord. It is an experience akin to the father who asked Jesus if he could heal his son and then cries out “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
We are living in such times. We are surrounded by hysteria. We are surrounded by fears. We are in a culture that is dominated by non-Christian thought. And yet, we can’t judge our world or look down our noses at people who are hysterical, because whenever we’re not hysterical, the only reason we are not is because the Lord is holding us up and we are living in the reality of the gospel. There are times when we too will become hysterical. In these times, our recourse, our reflex has to be to return to trusting in the Lord.
We want to be prudent. We want to make good plans. We want to make sure we’re practicing the best advice from public health officials and government authorities. But above all else, we must constantly remind each other to trust in the Lord and not be afraid. And when we are afraid, we must remember that the Lord is still there for us to trust. He does not condemn us for our lack of faith. He gives us his word to express the simultaneous reality of our fear and our trust, and through it reminds us that he is the object of our trust. Let’s be a people who strive to place our trust in God in times of fear.
Prayer
Going to God in prayer is an active way of trusting in him. Consider how you can spend extra time in prayer and lead your friends and/or family in prayer by contacting them and asking for prayer requests.
For more opportunities to pray and serve, please visit 2pc.org/covid-19-response/.
[1] View the the full Spurgeon sermon in print from spurgeongems.org.