The cry of the terrified heart is heard in the courts of the Most High. You are wearied in the length of your way, and you are come to a place where the failing of the flesh makes you feel like a worm, and no man. But this is the very spot where the Lord delights to meet you. There is no hope for you in yourself, not in the vigour of youth, the keenness of the eye, or the steadiness of the nerve. To lean on these is to hope in that which is no hope. Yet do not conclude that all is lost because the creature fails. We are saved in hope, and that hope is for things not seen. Your vision may grow dim, but faith sees Him who is invisible. Your body may quake, but the foundation of God stands sure. The life of your hand, the strength you once felt, is a poor staff to lean upon; but there is hope in Him whom God has provided to be the Savior of such as you.
You speak as one on the brink: βGod, please donβt let me down.β The fear of being let down is a snare. Fear is weakening; it makes the pilgrim look at the storm rather than at Him who walks upon the waves. But the Lord has issued a command against it, not a soft suggestion, but an absolute word: βFear not.β He does not say, βFear so much and no more,β but, βFear not at all. Be not dismayed.β Why? For He has said, βI will help thee.β This promise is not for the strong or the deserving, but for the worm Jacob, for the one who is brought low. If you are as weak as a worm, yet if you are a worm that the Lord has chosen to call His own, then His faithfulness is pledged to uphold you. The fear of death, the dread of the creeping dark, is natural to the sinner, but it has been put away for the saint. Christ has delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. If He be your life, what can disease and decay do but thrust you more completely upon Him?
That gnawing fright that whispers you may be let down, are you letting it drive you back to the simplicity of your first faith? Jacobβs fear led him to take a review of his life, and that was good. Examine your hope. If your hope is only in clear eyesight and a sound body, then it is a hope that is seen and is no hope at all. But there is a hope that enters into that within the veil, whither the Forerunner is for us entered. This hope is composed of belief, desire, and expectancy. Believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Desire Him more than healing, more than comfort, more than the clearing of the mortal mist. Expect that He will do what He has promised, not what your aching frame demands, but what His love and wisdom shall decree. When faith grows strong, fear of death and dread of disaster vanish like night before the dawn.
I charge you, be done with this fear that dishonors God. Doubt the Eternal, distrust the Omnipotent? O traitorous fear! Think you that the arm which piled the heavens shall be palsied? The Lord who made the eye, shall He not see your need? He who formed the ear, shall He not hear? He who gave His own Son for you, shall He not with Him also freely give you all things? To be afraid is disobedience if Christ has said, βFear not.β Cast the anchor of your hope into the deep waters of His atonement. If sin be pardoned, all else is but the light affliction which is for a moment. Forgiveness is the ground of holy fear, reverence, and awe; but it slays the slavish fear that dreads to be cast away. There is mercy with Him that He may be feared, not that you should tremble as a slave before an angry master, but that you should bow in loving worship before a reconciled Father.
The kitchen is the same, and the food the same; see to it that the appetite has not gone. How ravenous were you once after Godβs Word! Wake early to seek that bread. Plunge yourself in the sea of His faithfulness with a bold stroke. Look into your Saviorβs breast. There you will read mercy, and mercy alone. Be not afraid to put down one foot before the other; walk with careful, blessed fear of sin, but cast away the fear of the unknown morrow. You carry with you, O trembling saint, a greater than Caesar, Christ and all His salvation. The iron gate of despair may have clanged, but one word from Him will set it open. Hope in the Lord: for you shall yet praise Him who is the health of your countenance and your God.