Running Scared: Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest

by Edward T. Welch

The God who calls you to trust in him when you are afraid will spend a great deal of time showing you that you can trust him. He doesn’t ask you to live with your eyes shut. Faith is not blind.

Faith was about knowing God in an intimate, personal way and trusting him because he is trustworthy. Faith sees more, not less.

Yes, we are being taken to places we can’t yet see. We are asked to live by faith. But God’s communication allows us to see.

God rescued his people even before they called out to him. If you think about it, you have witnessed that many times yourself.

whenever Scripture says anything about God hearing, watch out, because you know something is about to happen. When God hears, he acts.

It is as if God says to us, “Let me remind you of how I listen and see if you think I could listen even to you.” Then he recounts stories of adulterers like King David, murderers like the apostle Paul, and grumblers like newly delivered Israel. If he hears and loves them, he will hear and love us. The lesson is clear: He doesn’t hear because of us and the quality of our prayers. He hears because he is the God Who Hears.

Ask any Christian where he would like to grow and he or she will say, “I would like to pray more.” As a remedy, some seek accountability or discipline themselves to pray and pray longer. A better strategy is to know God as the one Who Hears and remember the many stories of how he listens. Let it sink in that God is not like us. While we can “merely listen” (James 1:22) in the sense that we can hear the words but not respond, when God hears, he acts. Every instance of God hearing is followed by his mighty acts.

Nearness and presence will be recurring themes in God’s words of comfort to fearful people.

Control freaks and worriers are being told that the challenges of life are ordained by the Father and King. They are neither random nor accidental. The outcome of these daily tests doesn’t give God any new information about us. He is the Searcher and Knower of hearts. At least one of their purposes is to reveal us to ourselves. In that, they have the potential to reorient us and send us back to the true God.

God will give us what we need for today and today alone.

Dump a year’s supply of manna into cold storage and, guaranteed, you will forget God until the supply disappears (Deut. 8:10—14). Such prosperity would be a curse. God’s strategy is to give us enough for today and then, when tomorrow comes, to give us enough for that day too.

Fears and worries live in the future, trying to assure a good outcome in a potentially hard situation. The last thing they want to do is trust anyone, God included. To thwart this tendency toward independence, God only gives us what we need when we need it. The emerging idea is that he wants us to trust him in the future rather than our self-protective plans.

It was a test, a weekly tutorial for anxious people. God was saying through it, “I am the Creator God who will care for your needs. Embedded in the rhythm of your week will be an opportunity to rest. You will do this because I rested on the Sabbath, and you will do it because I continue to be at work on your behalf on the Sabbath.”

God’s deliverance is better than food, a clean medical scan, or having our candidate win the election. His deliverance means he will be with us; we will be able to withstand temptation without giving in to sin; and we will be able to stand firm even when attacked by our fiercest adversary, Satan the Accuser.

I want to keep better track of the many mini-deliverances in my life. I can look back on days when there was too much work, too much pain, too many expenses, too little wisdom; and I can see how God delivered me.

Even before we get to the fullest expression of God’s love and care through Jesus Christ, we have reason to live in thankful dependence. As God has already demonstrated to us in the exodus, he doesn’t wait for crises to happen before he acts. He doesn’t wait for us to call out to him. Instead, he is always on the move, always sustaining, giving every breath to every living being every day.

The real deliverance was not the manna in the wilderness, but the Bread of Life given for us. The ultimate deliverance was not our rescue from the jaws of death, because any temporal deliverance from death meant only that death was postponed. The real deliverance was the death of death secured by the death of Jesus Christ.

previously. But God’s deliverance was on a different plane. It led him to know God in an entirely different way. Yes, genuine pain and loss coexisted with the deliverance, but it did not have the last word. Its power to hurt him was weakened because he could see the bigger things God was doing in, for, and through him.

It means that there will be lots of sorrow as we walk through life, but we aspire to know sorrow that is mingled with hope. For subjects of King Jesus, death and tragedy are never the last word. The goodness of our God is certain. He has given up his very Son for our redemption. There is no reason to doubt him. The resurrection punctuates how the last word is one of blessing and joy.

Listen to God’s words and you will hear a hint of urgency. Yes, one of the background images for “Do not worry” is a pasture. The Shepherd is caring for us and we don’t have to be afraid. But the Shepherd seems awfully determined to calm our fears. It makes you wonder if there is something dangerous about fear and worry in and of themselves.

Worry is focused inward. It prefers self-protection over trust. It can hear many encouraging words—even God’s words—and stay unmoved. It can be life-dominating. It is connected to your money and desires in that it reveals the things that are valuable to you. It can reveal that you love something more than Jesus. It crowds Jesus out of your life.

He is near. He hears. He tests us. He gives us grace for today. He delivers. His earthly deliverance has an even better deliverance in view.

When Jesus speaks, he decides to use lots of words. He could say “Don’t worry” and let the Old Testament background carry the rest, but you can hear him working hard to persuade you. He knows you have reason to worry. He even knows that fear and worry aren’t conquered easily, so he perseveres in trying to reach your heart.

One of the strategies for dealing with worry is to be overtaken by something more important than the object of your worries. Jesus is showing us what is more important. A new kingdom was being inaugurated, and it was present even as Jesus spoke those words because he is its King. This new kingdom is so beautiful and important that it can override our worries about everyday concerns like food and clothing.

The term Father immediately connotes care, compassion, and strength. In those days, the father was committed to protecting his children so that the family line could continue and the father’s name would receive praise. The son or daughter was always welcome, always loved.

The King is extravagant. That is the good news for fearful people. Most fears link to our doubts about God’s generosity and attention to detail. In response, God decks his halls with beauty, which means that he freely gives what is costly. And, as the true expert craftsman, he attends to every last detail.

When everything is going well and the storehouses are full, we trust him. But when there is nothing for tomorrow, we panic and track down the address of another god who can give us enough for tomorrow and the next day too. It might not be Baal or vishnu; but, in the context of Jesus’ words, the god will have something to do with money and possessions.

Whom do I trust? Where is my faith? Those are the questions that all worriers must ask, yet all of us already know the answer.

The cure is not to simply know what the problem is. The cure is to know the one we are called to trust. Keep looking at the triune God and how he has revealed himself throughout history. Don’t spend your time focusing on your wavering allegiances.

How do you seek the kingdom? When you seek the King, you are seeking his kingdom. This kingdom includes everything that comes from him. It includes his law, his grace and mercy, his blessings of life, adoption, and holiness, and all his promises throughout Scripture. Those who seek him feed on his Word and seek to imitate him.

Worry is focused on tomorrow and God has already promised us that he will care for us tomorrow.

worry is usually about seeking something other than God’s kingdom. Worry is a sign that we are trying to have it both ways, with one foot in the kingdom of the world and the other in the kingdom of heaven.

The kingdom is the place where the King has all authority and power and, with the advent of Jesus’ public ministry, he is proclaiming his kingdom authority against a usurper and a false kingdom. The world is no longer under enemy control.

Worry and fear say that the world is threatening and you are alone. But when the kingdom of heaven pierces the earth, God is establishing his control in a new way. Now that the King has come, you will never be alone.

The spiritual world is our world—under the hood. You might not actually see it, but every single movement in life is inspired by it. We are human beings—spiritual/physical beings—who are all connected in some way to the true God, who is the Spirit. In everything we do, we make spiritual decisions: we live in dependence on the Spirit and imitate our God, or we set off against the Spirit, in which case we are separating ourselves from the Life-giver to go on end-stage life support. When we live apart from the Spirit, we are still connected to a spiritual being, but the spiritual being is Satan, the Evil one. One kingdom is ruled by fear, the other by mercy and grace.

Worries are a way that we doubt the King’s presence and power. Our doubts could come from our own stubborn commitment to the myth of personal autonomy, or they may come from satanic accusations that question God’s generosity and our unworthiness.

Now we understand even more why Jesus makes such a passionate appeal to not worry. He knows that worry, especially about money, draws us to the kingdom of earth, a.k.a. the kingdom of this world, our own kingdom, and the kingdom of the Evil one.

This gradual growth of the kingdom is the way of God. Miracles happen—and they can happen in a moment—but God’s favored method is to bring change with less fanfare.

So, when in doubt about how to seek first the kingdom, choose the path of persistence and endurance. Don’t wait for the occasional spectacular mighty acts of today.

Worry about money is located right at the crossroads of the two kingdoms. It is strategic ground, so we expect the battle to be fierce. From the Accuser’s perspective, we couldn’t be any more susceptible to defeat. When trouble is on the horizon, we already feel alone. We feel like we have to rely on ourselves. We might know what God says but it doesn’t seem relevant to the emerging crisis. We have a sense that the kingdom is for the future but our needs and worries are in the present.

In this spiritual no-man’s land, the lure of money is strong. Although wealth can’t protect my material possessions from being stolen or set ablaze, it can at least replace most of them.

The contrast between earthly and spiritual is not a contrast between the tangible and the intangible; it is between the transitory and the eternal. Earthly is temporary, spiritual is everlasting.

The Father genuinely cares about the daily needs of his children, and he is constantly caring for us, but he wants this to point us to something better. If we don’t find our life and strength in Jesus Christ, we will go from one worry to the next.

But don’t stop considering your own heart. Beneath our questions about God’s generosity and his care for our needs is something darker. What we really care about is our wants.

What compromises our allegiance and makes us so vulnerable is that our real concern is what we get out of the kingdom. Our version of the kingdom looks peculiarly like suburbia, where each one has his or her own half-acre—our own personal domain. But there is no private ownership in the kingdom. All is from God and belongs to God. We are not the owners of our material stuff; we are stewards, but not owners. God is in control and he sits on the throne where he receives glory, honor, and praise.

When you know that the kingdom is God’s alone (though he gives it to us), that is the only thing that can lead to peace and rest. Owners are the ones who do all the worrying; stewards simply listen to the owner’s desires and work to implement them.

Humility and generosity infuse every aspect of kingdom living. They are unmistakable qualities of the King and, since we have been given the kingdom rather than earned it, humility and generosity should be our natural responses.

So, the kingdom is God’s and God targets the needs of those who have less than we do. In other words, not only is the kingdom about God, and not me, I don’t even come in second! I am to consider others more important than myself in the kingdom.

Anxiety asks for more information so it can be prepared for the coming apocalypse. It also asks for more information so it can manage the world apart from God.

The deeper issue is that we still think God is a little stingy. He keeps secrets and plays games with us. He withholds. Can we fully trust someone who does such things?