“FEAR NOT!”

Haggai 2:4-9 (ESV)
“4 Yet now BE STRONG, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. BE STRONG, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. BE STRONG, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. WORK, FOR I AM WITH YOU, declares the LORD OF HOSTS,
5 according to the covenant that I made with you when you came out of Egypt. MY SPIRIT remains in your midst. “FEAR NOT”.
6 For thus says the LORD OF HOSTS: Yet once more, IN A LITTLE WHILE, I WILL SHAKE THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH AND THE SEA AND THE DRY LAND.
7 And I WILL SHAKE ALL THE NATIONS, so that THE TREASURES OF ALL NATIONS SHALL COME IN, and I WILL FILL THIS HOUSE WITH GLORY, says the LORD OF HOSTS.
8 The SILVER IS MINE, and THE GOLD IS MINE, declares the LORD OF HOSTS.
9 The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former, says the LORD of hosts. And in this place I will give peace, declares the LORD OF HOSTS.'" 

When ALMIGHTY GOD assigns you a task, the magnitude of said task might prove undaunting? It can be awfully easy to withdraw into seclusion, waiting for your path to be cleared and made simple?  But GOD never promises us that life in “this world” will be without challenges. Discovering that HE is truly IN TRULY CONTROL of every detail of our lives (not just the good things!) makes it easier to “FEAR NOT!”.  

A dear friend of mine was killed a few years back at his home. Discussing the details with his widow, my heart was breaking, yet at the same time I was strengthened, by the testimony he spoke to his wife the last time she spoke to him a few hours earlier. She reports that he said something to the effect of, “The same GOD that provides our blessings also provides our difficulties. We have to just TRUST in HIM for our everything”! Less than six hours later she was dealing with his death!  

It would have been very easy for her to withdraw into the arms of their children and grandchildren, but she remembered the testimony of her husband that GOD was in charge of EVERYTHING, even the seemingly BAD THINGS in life. Since ALMIGHTY GOD said MY SPIRIT remains in your midst, we need to WORK, and “FEAR NOT”, for HE is with us! When we show FEAR, we might be saying that we don’t know what is happening nor WHO is in control? We are SUPPOSED TO KNOW that GOD is in charge, and the enemy can not operate unless GOD permits.  “The SILVER IS MINE, and THE GOLD IS MINE, declares the LORD OF HOSTS” (Haggai 2:8). Isaiah 42:5 says HE gives us the very air that we breathe!  

As my EYES continue to be opened to SEE things that the “natural person” cannot see (1 Corinthians 2:14), amazement and awe flood my heart. SEEING that ALL THINGS (Romans 8:28) are working together FOR HIS GOOD comforts me, even if I cannot understand it now. “FEAR NOT”, for man is not in control, ALMIGHTY GOD is!!!