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

by Edward T. Welch

When we actually investigate Scripture, we find that God is not holding back. He reveals himself generously, without reservation, opening his very heart to us.

Worry and fear are always looking ahead. When the thing we dread is upon us, we usually do well. Anticipation is the killer.

If the difficulty you anticipate comes upon you, you will receive grace to know God’s love and grace to love someone else

If your loved one dies before you, you will have grace to know God’s comfort and to shine brightly as you reflect your Father’s glory.

Your future includes manna. It will come. There is no sense devising future scenarios now because God will do more than you anticipate. When you understand God’s plan to give future grace, 12 you have access to what is arguably God’s most potent salvo against worry and fear.

There is one bit of data that worriers never factor into their false prophecies. It is this: We will receive grace in the future.

God does not promise grace that removes hardships.

God does not promise that earthly life in his kingdom will be easier than life in our own kingdom. Instead, he indicates that in the kingdom of heaven we will be familiar with the sufferings of Christ. We will experience hardships. We will not be spared the difficulties of life. Compared with life outside the kingdom, suffering will be more intense, if only because we love others more deeply.

The God of grace is very personal and active. He is especially attentive to those who are needy, and he delights in giving gifts and power to them. Call out in your need and you will be heard.

You will be given all the grace you need when you need it.

It is enough to know that I will receive grace. I will know the presence of the Spirit and I will die, or be rescued, in a way that pleases the Lord.

We would still like to abolish anxieties quickly, but we are learning that God values strong foundations and gradual growth, and such foundations are established as we feed on him and his words.

When you seek the Lord, it means more than just finding a safe place. It means that you order your life according to the laws of the kingdom.

Worry is trained to see catastrophe. As a result, when the deliverance of God appears, we miss it. If we do see it, we are already on to the next worry. The kingdom of God is here; therefore, the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living is available for all to see. What have you seen? How can you train yourself to see? And how can we help each other to see?

What does it mean to store up treasures on earth? It doesn’t mean that IRAs are wrong, or the recommendation that we save ten percent of our income is unspiritual. It means that anything labeled “mine” is already rusting. If our hope rests in our IRA or our savings, then we have reason to worry, because it never seems to be safe enough or large enough.

Worry, therefore, is not simply an emotion that erodes our quality of life or a pain to be alleviated. It is a misdirected love that should be confessed. It is trying to manage our world apart from God. It is making life about our needs, desires, and wants.

Any journey back to the kingdom of God must go through confession. Anxiety is a string around our finger reminding us that money has become our refuge. Find anxiety about finances and you find sin; it is as simple as that.

Confession is the only way to deal with relational wrongs.

if God is to be our treasured possession, we can expect that he has first made us his treasured possession.

His commitment and love go deeper than his response to anything in you. Instead, he loves you because that is the way he is: He is a lover, a faithful, extravagant lover. He was not initially drawn to your greatness, and he won’t run away when your less attractive side is revealed.

One way to track fears and worries is to follow the money. Another is to follow them back to other people’s possible judgments of us. What will people do to me? What will they say about me? What will they think about me? Will they love me? When

Fear and worry reveal what we treasure. They show where we want control but lack it. They expose allegiances. To use everyday language, they point to what we think we need.

When the kingdom of God is ruling our hearts, we aspire more to serve than be served, honor more than be honored, and love more than be loved. This doesn’t mean that we don’t care about being loved; it simply means that we always want to outdo others in love. Do we run the risk of a lopsided relationship? Absolutely. That is the relationship we have with God—he always loves first and most.

This is life in the kingdom. It wants love, but it wants even more to love others deeply. Its treasure is to grow in the fruits of the Spirit, foremost of which is to love others.

When my kingdom is at stake—my reputation, my quest for being loved—there is much to lose. Out of fear I commit myself to self-protection.

If you really want to fight fear, learn to fear Someone who captures your attention in such a way that your other fears suddenly seem pedestrian and unimportant.

To fear the Lord is one way we are instructed to respond to God. There are many ways God calls us to respond to him, such as with love, obedience, honor, and trust. Yet the call to fear the Lord is the most frequently commanded and central response.

The “fear” in “the fear of the Lord” has a much broader meaning than we normally assign it. It can mean obedient reverence and awe.

the proper postures in the presence of God is to be bowed low, very low.

Life in the kingdom of heaven is always responsive. Our God initiates and makes himself known to us and we respond. The fear of the Lord is, of course, a response to God. What are we responding to? We are responding to his holiness.

Do you ever think that your sins are too bad, and that forgiveness for those sins requires you to get your act together first? If so, you don’t fear God. You are minimizing his forgiveness. You are acting as though his forgiveness is ordinary, just like that of any person or make-believe god. If you think like that, you don’t believe he is holy. In contrast, the fear of the Lord leads us to believe that when God makes promises too good to be true, they are indeed true.

can grow in the fear of the Lord by diligently reading Scripture, truly listening to sermons, participating in worship, and asking friends how they have been learning more of the mighty acts of God. All these means will help me fight back when fear attacks. Then I want to speak about these mighty acts to others.

Your God has fenced you in so that your only option is to trust that he will give you grace. What has this grace looked like with others? Grace to believe that God is good. Grace to have joy even while the body is wasting away. Grace to cry out and be certain that God hears. Grace to know that you are not alone. Grace to trust rather than fear. Grace to know that death is not the end.

Everything we do now has eternal implications, of that we can be sure.

When stated allegiances are accompanied by treasonous actions, you judge allegiances based on deeds.

The problem is that every Christian with an intact conscience can acknowledge that he or she has broken and continues to break every command. Selfish ambition, language that tears down rather than builds up, and an imperfect love for God and other people reside in the heart of every believer. At issue for us, however, is not perfection (1 John 1:8). That can only be given to us by Christ alone, and it awaits eternity. The issue can be put this way: Which direction do you face? Is your face turned toward Christ or away from him?

Does your church practice discipline of those who claim to follow Christ but persist in their own sin? If so, the fact that you are known but not excommunicated is an earthly sign of a heavenly reality (Matt. 16:19; 18:18).

We have reason to be sobered, perhaps, but not afraid. If final judgment examines our spiritual allegiances, there should be nothing to worry about. As followers of Christ, we live for him rather than ourselves. When we see sin, we turn from it. Since we know we can be blind to our sin, we live among a community that can help us see.

Check your conscience. Ask others if they see obedience to Christ in your life. Consider what others would see if your private behaviors were public. Remember that confession of sin is not the threat to self-esteem that people think. Confession and repentance are some of the most Godlike things we can do. They elevate and liberate us. So take time to consider your life. Where are you living for yourself and your own desires? Ask the Spirit to give you grace to walk in the light rather than the darkness.

Any interest anyone has in Jesus Christ is not natural to us. It is stirred by God himself. Does it make sense that God would arouse such an interest in the kingdom but exclude you from it?

If condemnation and fears of judgment haunt you, it is time to consider the possibility that the issue might be neither your own sin nor God’s displeasure. You know that Satan rushes in at any mention of legal matters. Although expelled from the courtroom (Rev. 12:10), he knows that we still waver at the thought of judgment and are easy targets.

When you are feeling weak, ask for the Spirit to teach you more about how righteousness is not inherent to you but has been given to you by the righteous acts of Jesus (Rom. 5:15—21).

The reality is that the Spirit convicts of sin. One piece of evidence of kingdom life is that you will see more sin, not less. Outside the kingdom of heaven, there is no concern about sin.

When you are brought into the kingdom of light, you both see sin and, for the first time, get in a battle with it. The battle means you are alive.

If you are immune to the message of hope and deliverance, there are obvious questions begging to be asked. Is there a reason why you feel so condemned? What have you done that deserves judgment? What are you doing that you want to hide? Are there sins you are reluctant to tell anyone?

God does not forgive you based on the quality of your confession or your resolve to be a better person. But you keep thinking otherwise. Your standard is what you would do to someone like yourself, and chances are that you would not let the incident pass quickly. God, however, forgives for his own name’s sake. “I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more” (Isa. 43:25). There may be no finer words in Scripture. God bases his forgiveness on himself and his forgiving character, not on the quality of your confession.

One of the principles God gives to those who worry is that we should focus on today and trust him to give us the grace to handle tomorrow. Today you collect manna and walk humbly with your God in faith and obedience. Tomorrow he will be faithful to his promises. He will give you the grace you need, which might come in the form of manna, food from a friendly neighbor, or some other means.

God argues that he did not deliver us so that we could be left to ourselves. He delivered us so that we would belong to him and receive all the benefits of being brought into God’s family

Our trust in Christ is never perfect, but it is one sign that we belong to Christ and that the work of the cross is applied to us. In part this means we are cleansed. Robes that were once blemished and hands that were bloody because of our murderous ways are washed. They are white, and white is the color of a bride beautifully dressed for her husband (Rev. 21:2). We are intended to be the bride of Christ, and when we belong to him we are intended to hear, “As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you” (Isa. 62:5).

There is something anticlimactic about death. That is neither to minimize the wonder of being perfect and seeing Jesus Christ face-to-face or the grief of death and loss. But in light of the cataclysm that has already taken place at the cross, death has been robbed of some of its drama.