Facing Fear Biblically Part 1 – Our Best Life Isn't Now

In the last post in this series, I mentioned that our goal in facing fear is to honor God. We might not be able to remove the feeling of fear, but we can grow in trusting God and obey him. In these next few posts, I plan to address how we can trust God when we face fear.

Today, we will think about the need to live as a people who know that our best life isn’t now. Rather, we must live in constant hope of our resurrection. Essentially, we must remember where we live in redemptive history.

Remember Where You Live in the Biblical Storyline.

We live in a fallen world – so we should not expect “our best life now.” 

Sin, sickness, and death all remain until the new Heavens and new Earth. So, we should be realistic about our expectations. We don’t live in a time and place free from danger and risk to our physical lives. In fact, your chances of death are 100% (unless the rapture happens first). I know this sounds gloomy, but it is where we live. Even as God’s people, we are not exempt from suffering (read the Psalms, Job, Daniel, Acts). The Bible doesn’t hide the hardships of life in this fallen world, but that’s not all it says.

We also must remember that we live after the first coming of Jesus – when he came to die in our place. 

He died to rescue us from the one truly irreversible calamity, namely the catastrophe of dying in our rebellion against God and facing his just wrath. Jesus died to redeem us from sin and the judgment we deserve, and he rose from the dead to guarantee our resurrection life. Thus, God has demonstrated his love for us by giving his own Son to redeem us (Romans 8:32).

Beyond that, we must remember that we live in anticipation of being resurrected. 

Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we too will be raised to dwell with God in the new Heavens and new Earth forever (Rom. 8:11)! There will be no more sin, sickness, or death (Rev. 21).

Two Results of Remembering Where You Live

Two good fruits blossom in our lives when we remember that we live in a fallen world, after the first coming of Christ, and in the hope of our resurrection. First, we know that God loves us. We have no reason to doubt his love when we face temporal dangers because he has secured our eternal joy and salvation by sending his Son.

Second, it teaches us that all our afflictions, as severe as they can be, are “light and momentary” (2 Cor. 4:17).  That is what Paul said, and he faced beatings, natural disasters, and times of as he served God.  He wasn’t sadistic. He just saw the bigger picture. He knew even hard suffering worked ultimate good for him. After all, if God is for us, who or what can ultimately prevail against us (Rom. 8:31)? Not even death will have the last say in our lives because its sting has been removed by Jesus’s work (1 Cor. 15:55-56).

Live as Those Who Have Resurrection Life

So, the first way to fight against fear is to reflect on our dangers in light of the gospel’s unshakable hope. In other words, we must live as those who believe in a resurrection and who believe that our best life is not in this fallen world.

This doesn’t mean we fail to value life here and now (1 Tim. 4:4). It doesn’t mean we live recklessly (we are not to test the Lord). It just means we factor more into the equation than unbelievers. They focus only on what is seen – physical life and temporal comfort. We consider what is seen but give greater weight to the unseen and eternal. Therefore, we don’t count it as a net loss to obey God even if we might lose our physical comforts, possessions, or life.  

This way of calculating will enable us to make wise investments of our God-given lives. We are stewards of our lives for God’s glory. So, if gathering to worship God is a good investment of our lives (Heb. 10:24-25), then in a time of pestilence or persecution, we will seek to mitigate risk based on the information God allows us to have and move forward in trusting obedience.

Renewing Our Minds and Imaginations

Let me close by giving you a growth assignment to help reinforce this mindset (because it is not natural to you or me). It takes work to renew our minds. It only happens as we saturate our minds with the truth of God’s Word (Rom. 12:1-2). So, here is a suggestion for how to renew your mind in this area:

1. Pick a verse about heaven (Rev. 21), the resurrection (1 Cor. 15), the light and momentary nature of affliction when compared to eternity (2 Cor. 4:16-5:9), or the fact that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ (Rom. 8).
2. Write out 20 observations and implications of the passage on a sheet of paper (maybe do 5 a day until you get to 20).
3. Daily think over the glorious realities by reviewing a few things from your list of observations. This will help you retrain your imagination to conjure up your hope-filled future rather than all the anxious “what ifs” of short-sighted living.
4. Memorize a verse or two from the passage (write it on a notecard and carry it with you and review it regularly).
5. Pray to thank God for the truths you are seeing. Truth has not fully impacted our soul if we have not given God genuine thanks for it.

Thinking Biblically about Fear and Health During COVID

This is part of a series. To see part one, click here.

People with phobias might see reality more clearly than those who are not afraid of much - if you don’t factor God in the equation. There are many dangers in a fallen world. The theme song from the TV series Monk summarizes it well (he was a detective who saw dangers a bit too clearly):

 It's a jungle out there
Disorder and confusion everywhere
No one seems to care
Well I do
Hey, who's in charge here?
It's a jungle out there
Poison in the very air we breathe
Do you know what's in the water that you drink?
Well I do, and it's amazing
People think I'm crazy, 'cause I worry all the time
If you paid attention, you'd be worried too
You better pay attention
Or this world we love so much might just kill you
I could be wrong now, but I don't think so
'Cause there's a jungle out there
It's a jungle out there

When it comes to the Coronavirus, we have heard a lot of statistics and stories that can make us afraid. Having some level of fear doesn’t make us crazy or worthy of some sort of psychological label.

However, Christians serve the living God and look forward to resurrection life as our ultimate hope. That means something for how we should deal with fear and respond to it. In this post, I want to address how the Bible tells us to think about fear in general. Then I want to tackle one fear we might have – the fear of getting extremely sick or dying from this virus.

The Biblical Picture of Fear

Fear is not inherently wrong. It is the opposite side of the coin as desire. If I fear something, it is because I desire something else (and fear losing it). So, we should fear God (fear his displeasure and desire his smiling face). In a fallen world, I should fear jumping from a 5-story building or being bitten by the rattle snake I am staring at on a trail. God gave us fear to protect us physically and spiritually.

Fear, however, like other God-given emotions, can reveal where our desires have gotten off track. For example, Saul was king of Israel, and he disobeyed God’s direct command “because [he] feared the people” (1 Sam. 15:24). He feared losing the approval of people more than losing God’s approval. This fear revealed a heart that elevated a good thing (wanting the approval of people) to an ultimate thing (“I must have it, even if I have to disobey God”).

So, fear can be useful, but it can also reveal where our hearts have gotten priorities out of order. We need wisdom from God and the help of loving Christian friends to help us sort this out.

Fear and Disease

It is not bad to fear a serious disease as long as it is kept in its proper place. Life is a gift from God, and we should care for our bodies. We should take reasonable precautions (knowing what is reasonable has been challenging with COVID because much was unknown early on).

But, we must also check to see that good health does not become ultimate or idolatrous. Our bodies are a gift, but they are not worthy of our total allegiance and worship. God is. Good health is a good gift from God, but it makes a terrible god. We must steward our health in service to him. However, we must not worship it because all things are from him and through him and to him so that he might be glorified (Rom. 11:36). In other words, our problem comes when our desire for good health gets ordered above our desire to obey God. We should not be controlled by the fear of anything except the Lord.

Should Fear of COVID Keep us from Gathering?

If fear causes us to disobey God, then that is a problem. If fear of persecution made me deny Christ, that would be a sin. If a fear of getting sick (or even dying) caused me to forsake assembling, that would be a sin. Remember, forsaking is not the same as temporarily not gathering[1] or being providentially hindered (like a Christian being in the hospital for a month).

If we might get sick from gathering, we know that our physical life is not ultimate. The world lives as if this life is all they have because it is all they have (kind of like the Monk theme song). We should display our faith in God by being willing to gather. This is not a faith that we won’t get sick. It is a trust in God’s sovereign ordering of our lives, including sickness, health, life, and death.

Conclusion

I realize there are other reasons, besides ungodly fear, which might keep some from being able to resume gathering for worship at this stage. I am not assuming everyone has ungodly fear. But I know that in my heart, there have been seasons of fear, and I assume others might have that experience too.

Our goal isn’t to avoid feeling fear as much as it is to honor God, even when we feel afraid. I often tell my boys when they feel scared that courage isn’t the absence of fear. It is doing what honors God, even when they feel afraid. I need to be reminded of that too.

In the next few posts, I plan to address how to renew our thinking with God’s Word. Specifically, how to fight fearful thoughts.

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[1] I believe temporarily suspending meeting together when the government asks us to can be right. When there is evidence that the lives of many citizens will likely be put at grave risk if any group gathers, we can rightly decide to suspend meeting out of a love for our neighbors and proper submission to the government.  

Desiring and Planning to Return to Church During COVID

For much of history, gathering to worship God with other Christians has been a challenge. There are always things which seem like "good" reasons to avoid gathering to worship. 

Most often, persecution has made it difficult. In the Roman empire, Christianity was not encouraged (to say the least) by the government.  Gathering to worship God could easily bring persecution (see Hebrews 11:35-38) and ostracization from society (John 9:22). The same is true in much of the world today (N. Korea, China, etc.).

Add to that our own sin nature which makes us difficult to get along with. It is hard to gather with fellow sinners (Phil. 4:2, 2:1-5). 

In addition to being sinners, in the modern American context, we also compete against our desire for ease and comfort. Much of life is easy. Much of life is aimed at meeting consumer desires. It is easy to slip into seeing the church as a commodity and to desire convenience. 

Add to these “common” experiences a global pandemic, which gives us a mysterious fear (mysterious because we didn’t know much about how bad it would be and faced conflicting information). Mix in technology which makes it more comfortable and safe to watch a worship service at home.  The result is that it might be hard for many to overcome the inertia of the moment and move towards gathering for Christian worship.

I want to offer some pastoral counsel to those that are finding it hard to envision returning to worship. Over the next few posts, I plan to address a few issues that you might be facing as you seek to honor God in the decisions you must make. In today’s post, it is sufficient to say, “We need to desire to be with God’s people, and we need to plan for it.” 

Why We Need to Desire to be with God's People

Before getting to my reasoning, let me provide a caveat.  There are certainly times where gathering, in God’s providence, is temporarily suspended. For example, in Acts, when persecution broke out, many had to flee. Maybe they couldn’t gather immediately with “the church,” but I am sure they desired it and planned for it. Other examples include a temporary suspension of church gatherings during the 1918 flu. It is important to note that God brought such circumstances. The people didn’t simply decide they would not meet during normal circumstances. However, even in such extraordinary times, there should be a desire and laboring towards being able to gather again.

So, why should we desire to gather for worship in the face of a pandemic? 

First, it is intrinsic to who God made us to be as Christians. The word “church” refers to a gathering of God’s people that he called to himself. More than that, the church is described as the family of God. It is inherent in a good family to want to be together and love one another. (see Pastor Rod's sermon  from last Sunday for a more in-depth treatment of these things).

Second, we have an external reason. We should want to gather to obey God’s command. Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us not to “forsake” assembling. Why say it that way? Why not just say, “Meet together every week”? I don’t know all the reasons, but one reason is that there are times we can’t gather (illness, inability to be mobile). To forsake, on the other hand, refers to letting other things become more important than gathering. For example, a kid’s travel team could be a way that we find ourselves pulled towards forsaking assembling. The point is, God commands us not to forsake gathering with other believers for worship and encouragement (Note: He is speaking to a church body in Hebrews, so this isn’t just a call to grab coffee occasionally with a few Christian friends. It is a call to gather with the body).

Third, we should want to gather because gathering in worship and fellowship should stir us up to love God and serve others. Christians find joy in our relationship with God and in serving him and others. Hebrews 10:24-25 says this happens as we gather. Furthermore, the “one another” commands of the New Testament (a way to show our love for God and others) require some sort of gathering with God’s people.

So, we should desire to gather, and we need to plan for it. I am not saying each person can or should come back immediately.1 But, each one should desire to return as soon as possible and plan for such a return.

Why plan to return?

The reason I say plan to return is that planning is what manifests our desire. It’s not merely saying, “I want to run in the marathon,” that proves desire. It is signing up for the race and doing the training needed (in our case preparing the heart and mind to think biblically). To put it another way, a young man can say he loves a young woman, but if he never makes plans to marry her, it calls his desire into question. Even if the event must be postponed due to God’s providence, there is a desire that leads to some sort of planning and hoping.

My next posts, Lord willing, will address some issues that you might find yourself facing as you begin this process of planning to return to corporate worship. Many of these I have encountered in my own heart. So, if you find one applies to you, take heart, for you are not alone.

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1 It may be that you are in a situation in which you need to wait for more information. Or perhaps you are very elderly and a shut-in. Let me encourage you to express your desire to be with God’s people by finding as many ways as you can to contact other members in the church and by faithfully praying for your fellow members. And, keep live streaming the services. Furthermore, consider asking for a pastor to call you to check in on you occasionally.