INTRODUCTION to the series:

Several months ago – long before the Covid19 pandemic became the global focus of our lives – I surveyed newsletter recipients what topics they’d like to see me reflect on in my blogs. The answer (surprisingly to me) came back wanting to hear my reflections on life at age 66, now in my 50th year of following Jesus.  

I started laying out a writing plan with topics and stories of lessons-learned…  and then coronavirus changed life for all of us. In April, our team at DAI produced a month of devotional reflections built around our response to the pandemic. I was privileged to contribute a dozen of these reflections. Because my “blog” list and our DAI newsletter list has such little overlap, we decided I would run these again – starting Monday May 4th and appearing as a “reflection for the week” for the next twelve Mondays.

My prayer is twofold – first, that these reflections will be an encouragement to your faith and second, that at some point over these twelve weeks they become irrelevant to Covid19 because a vaccination/cure will be discovered, and we will be on the road to recovery.

If you’d like to catch up on past reflections from this series you can do so here:

Three Words for Daily Living: Don’t Be Afraid

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God’s Promised Presence

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.  Isaiah 41:10

Our current circumstances can lead to unprecedented fears, and the sheer amount of news media, social networking traffic, and random advice-giving going around can leave us dismayed. But God says do not fear!  How?

In the Bible, the phrases we translate “Don’t be afraid” comes in three forms: 

  1. “Don’t fear.” More often than not, this phrase had to do with things that are external threats as in Numbers 14:9 – “Do not fear the people of the land or “Don’t be afraid of those who will persecute you” in the Gospels.  
  2. “Don’t be afraid” often corresponds to fear related to internal threats: “What’s going to happen?” “Where will I go?” If you’re afraid of the future or overwhelmed by your fears of loneliness, God says, “Don’t be afraid.”
  3. The phrase “Don’t be anxious” usually has to do with trying to stay in charge of everything, even trying to control things out of our control, as in, “Don’t be worried about tomorrow” – from Matthew 6:34.

In most of God’s “don’t fear” or “don’t be afraid” statements, he adds promises. Perhaps the most significant is simply this: I the Lord am with you. God reassures us by his character. Oswald Chambers writes, “God does not tell you what He is going to do; He reveals to you Who He is.” 

In the face of fear God says, “Be strong & courageous” follower of Jesus Christ. “I will never leave you or forsake you.”  “When you pass through the waters… the rivers… the fire… the flames…. I will be with you.”  

And we can respond in faith: Yes! “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” “I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” (Psalm 118:6-7; Deuteronomy 31:6; Hebrews 13:5-6; Isaiah 43:2; Psalms 23:4)

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for protecting us from external and internal threats. Thank you that you are in control, so we don’t need to be. Thank you for promising to be with us and remain with us through whatever hardship we may face. Please help us to return again and again to the truth of your presence regardless of how we may feel in the moment. Amen.

Paul & Christie Borthwick serve with Development Associates International. If you are interested in learning more about DAI:

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