Breaking The Fear CycleSample

When the Worst Happens

The Jews who experienced the destruction of Israel during the time of the prophet Jeremiah were living out their worst fears. They faced loss, death, sickness, murder, poverty, and national turmoil. They had no ways to protect their loved ones and there was no end to their pain in sight. 

Yet in Lamentations we read Jeremiah’s words not of fear but of hope:

• Because the Lord loves us, we will not be consumed. 

• God’s compassions will never fail us. 

• Every single morning we awake with new hope.

• God’s faithfulness is great.

• The Lord is our portion, and he will provide.

• When we wait for him, he will come. 

• The Lord is good to those who hope in him. 

The truth is that we have no promise that what we fear the most won’t happen. The sooner we allow ourselves to address the truth about our fears, the sooner we can allow God in to redeem them. 

If you are like me, you don’t trust that God will be there if your fears come true because you can’t comprehend how he could help in that situation. After all, your child would still be sick or dying, your spouse would still have left, your job would still be gone, the house would still be taken, your children would still be running away from you. The actual circumstance of the fear wouldn’t change, and so what then could God possibly do for you? 

This is where the miracle comes in. We know and can be assured that even if our worst fears come true, we have hope, compassion, faithfulness, newness, and provision from a God who does not lie to us. This is where faith is defined, where we ask ourselves if we really believe in the things unseen. Do we believe that there is something greater than what our fingers can touch and what our eyes can see? 

May we take hope in the survival of those who have gone before us. May we believe their testimony, their story, to be true, and may we take heart in the knowledge that God comes alive in new ways to those in the midst of the worst. 

Because from the worst of the pits, we hear sweet promises. 

When have you experienced God’s presence and good gifts in the midst of a fear coming true?