When fear comes, the answer is to trust in God and to rest safely in His care. That trust is to be placed in God in the very moment of fear, including in conflict with the powers of darkness, with confidence that God's angels will not abandon those in the struggle.
The verse belongs to David's extremity at Ziklag, when he wept with his men over the destruction, with country lost, city plundered, and wives and children captive. His followers blamed him for the calamity and threatened him with death by stoning. That distress followed his lack of faith in placing himself among the Philistines and leaving the city unguarded, which provoked the Amalekite attack.
In that extremity, when every human support was cut off, David refused to dwell on painful circumstances and looked earnestly to God for help. He encouraged himself in the Lord by reviewing his past eventful life and recalling many evidences of God's favor, and the remembrance refreshed his soul. Trust in fear means bearing even greater grief with fortitude rather than with discontent and impatience that double affliction. It means believing that though no way out can be discerned, God sees it and will teach what to do.
Trust is to be practiced in the midst of trial and not only when trouble is absent, and enduring severe trials by God's grace develops a deep and abiding trust in Him. God's care gives safety to the soul that turns to Him for aid, holding it close, giving help and grace for every circumstance, and fulfilling His promise to those who rely on Him. Trust in God, strengthened by prayer and study of the Word, enables Christians to remain faithful and witness for Christ despite danger, opposition, or difficult surroundings. When fear and lack of courage come from looking at self and being compassed with infirmities and feebleness, the response is to trust in a power out of and above self, to make God the dependence, to have no doubt that He will help, and to keep affirming that trust over and over.
When fear comes, the answer is to trust in God and to rest safely in His care. That trust is to be placed in God in the very moment of fear, including in conflict with the powers of darkness, with confidence that God's angels will not abandon those in the struggle.
The verse belongs to David's extremity at Ziklag, when he wept with his men over the destruction, with country lost, city plundered, and wives and children captive. His followers blamed him for the calamity and threatened him with death by stoning. That distress followed his lack of faith in placing himself among the Philistines and leaving the city unguarded, which provoked the Amalekite attack.
In that extremity, when every human support was cut off, David refused to dwell on painful circumstances and looked earnestly to God for help. He encouraged himself in the Lord by reviewing his past eventful life and recalling many evidences of God's favor, and the remembrance refreshed his soul. Trust in fear means bearing even greater grief with fortitude rather than with discontent and impatience that double affliction. It means believing that though no way out can be discerned, God sees it and will teach what to do.
Trust is to be practiced in the midst of trial and not only when trouble is absent, and enduring severe trials by God's grace develops a deep and abiding trust in Him. God's care gives safety to the soul that turns to Him for aid, holding it close, giving help and grace for every circumstance, and fulfilling His promise to those who rely on Him. Trust in God, strengthened by prayer and study of the Word, enables Christians to remain faithful and witness for Christ despite danger, opposition, or difficult surroundings. When fear and lack of courage come from looking at self and being compassed with infirmities and feebleness, the response is to trust in a power out of and above self, to make God the dependence, to have no doubt that He will help, and to keep affirming that trust over and over.