Do Not Fear: God is With You
When I read somewhere that “Do not fear” occurs in the Bible 365 times—once for each day of the year, I wanted to take a look myself and find all those instances. There are not 365 instances, by the way, but there are however a lot of verses where God gives the command to not fear.
I want these verses to remind you, and me, that God is always for us, fighting our battles, seeing us in the midst of our circumstances, and through it all, He wants us to trust Him and not be afraid. The verses show the different circumstances people faced in the Bible and in those circumstances, the Lord says, “Do not fear,” or, “Do not be afraid.”
I hope you'll find these verses encouraging and applicable to your own life, and that you'll always remember: no matter what is happening in your life or in the lives of those you love, with God on your side, there is nothing to fear.
After searching for verses that contained or dealt with the command not to fear, I categorized them in three different categories: promises of God, life circumstances, and fearless future. We will start with the promises of God, which are many! He truly wants His people to live in freedom, not fearing what may come. In some of His commands, the Lord also gives a promise to certain people in certain situations, however, I believe they can be applied to us today, as well.
The first time I came across this command of God was when He
gave Abram a vision—note: Abram had not yet been renamed to “Abraham.” He was
sojourning in the land and God called him to the land of Canaan, the land of
promise, through a vision as it says in Genesis 15:1—After these things the
word of Adonai came to Abram in a vision saying, “Do not fear, Abram. I am your
shield, your very great reward.”
Not only does God promise that He will guard and protect
Abram, the Lord also promises that He is Abram’s “great reward.” No matter what
happens from this point forward, He wanted Abram to know that He is sufficient
for all of Abram’s needs—everything he could ever want would be first fulfilled
in his God.
The same thing for us, we have no reason to fear, no reason to be afraid if we’re His redeemed people. God promises to guard us, protect us, and be our reward when we have faith in Him, even before He may call us to yet another journey with Him.
As you may know, Abram’s journey later on included Isaac and
Jacob, to whom God also promises His presence and peace. Like his father, Isaac
also saw a vision from God. It says in Genesis 26:24, Adonai appeared to him
that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid,
for I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your seed for the sake of
Abraham my servant.” And then the Lord reiterates His promise—as He did
numerous times throughout the generations of establishing Israel as His
people—to Jacob: “I am God, the God of your father,” He said. “Do not be afraid
to go down to Egypt, for I will turn you into a great nation there” (Genesis
46:3). Even when Abram (later renamed to
Abraham), Isaac, and Jacob (later renamed to Israel), couldn’t see what was
happening and didn’t know exactly how God planned to fulfill His promise to
them, they walked by faith, and without fear.
Even when I can’t see what’s ahead of me, or how a promise from God will be fulfilled, I can still choose to live in the safety of His promises and trust that it will come to pass in His timing.
The patriarchs of Israel chose to go where they were sent
and God was faithful to them: He birthed the entire nation of Israel through
these faithful men.
Even after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and into
the wilderness, the Lord has been faithful. After Moses died and Joshua took
his place in leading the nation of Israel, God established His strength and
presence once again, promising Joshua that He would be with him every step of
the way. In Joshua 1:9, God says, “Have I not commanded you? Chazak! Be strong!
Do not be terrified or dismayed, for Adonai your God is with you wherever you
go.”
Again, the Lord is faithful to keep His promises. He led
Joshua out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land, bringing His people to
the land flowing with milk and honey (cf. Exodus 3:17). Once the nation of
Israel settled in the land, there arose a need for judges, which the Lord
established. This began a cycle of obedience, to disobedience, to realizing
their need for God, to repentance, back to obedience.
During the time of the judges, one of them was Gideon, who
was in the least of the tribes of Israel, and he was the youngest in his family
(see Judges 6:15). Talk about a humble start!
Yet, the Lord decided He wanted to use Gideon for His
purposes, after which Gideon requested signs from Him and God was gracious to
provide those signs (Judges 6). After Gideon accepted God’s call, the Lord
assured him that he will not die after seeing the Angel of the Lord. Judges
6:23—But Adonai said to him, “Shalom to you. Fear not, you will not die.”
Because the Israelites most likely knew of the time Moses most likely recounted
that one cannot see God and live (cf. Exodus 33:20), Gideon was probably
fearful for having seen the Angel of the Lord. Yet, in the Lord’s graciousness,
he lived to save the Israelites from the Midianites.
The final occurrence that I want to mention is when the Lord
promises Jeremiah His presence: “Do not be afraid of them! For I am with you to
deliver you.” It is a declaration of Adonai (Jeremiah 1:8). Similar to Gideon,
Jeremiah figured himself to be too young, too insignificant, unable to be used
by God in this way, yet who God calls, God also assures His presence and
strength to walk through the task given. I love that it says, “It is a
declaration of Adonai.” Once the Lord has said it, it will come to pass. We can
trust that what He has spoken will not return void and will come to pass (cf.
Isaiah 55:11).
When we rely on Him, there’s nothing to fear. He is the One
who equips us to carry out the calling He has placed on our lives. I read
somewhere that when God gave you your calling, He already took into
consideration your personality and fears and doubts—and He still calls you.
From Abraham and his son and grandson to Joshua to Gideon to
Jeremiah, a promise of protection and guidance was given and each promise was
fulfilled as they walked by faith, not by sight (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:7). If the
Lord has promised you something, hold fast to it and know that He is with you
and will be the One who carries you through. He is the One we look to—He is our
great reward! Be blessed in the Lord, my friends.
“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and
of love and of a sound mind.”
—2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV
Scripture taken from the Holy Scriptures, Tree of Life Version*. Copyright © 2014, 2016 by the Tree of Life Bible Society. Used by permission of the Tree of Life Bible Society.
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