Fear doesn’t limit itself to late October or long nights or lonely seasons. No, it slips in during happy times and waits until you notice it. Sometimes it dresses itself as worry or anxiety, but it’s still fear. Occasionally it disguises itself as anger or compulsion or something else, but that only makes the costume harder to see through. It doesn’t change the fact that fear is there.
Fear is a curse.
It grays our hair, etches lines in our faces, strains our hearts and steals our sleep. Fear is almost as old as sin itself. It drives us from the presence of God, like Adam and Eve in the Garden. It kills our joy, clouds our vision and snatches our dreams.
God knows this about us. He offers to make an exchange. Because He loves us with a perfect love, one that is complete, unconditional, and neverending, He will cast out our fear. Cast out. This is authoritative. This has the muscle to back it up. This is “get out and never come back.”
Then to fill the spaces where fear lived, He offers peace. His peace. The supernatural kind that’s beyond explanation. The peace is ours to keep. And He will make this exchange as many times as we need.
Even after we open the door and let fear in one more time.
What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. Psalm 56:3