Promises are Louder than Fear

I can tell you where I was the moment I found out the capitol was being attacked by terrorists.

January 6th, I was sitting in my dining room talking with one of my roommates while she was making lunch.

I got a notification on my phone that read, “U.S. capitol is under attack.”

I remember reading that headline and sitting my phone down because I thought, Surely this cannot actually be happening. A few minutes later I got on Twitter and saw news outlets flooding my timeline with videos and pictures of people indeed seizing our nation’s capital. I told my roommate, and we went to turn on our TV to watch what can only be described as a fever nightmare unfold.
 
A handful of U.S. citizens were not only marching on our capitol but invading it with little to no resistance.  

Over the next hour, I watched in horror and disbelief until the screen shifted to a man holding up a sign that read “JESUS SAVES”. In that moment, an anger so fierce came over me that I had to walk out of the room. All I kept thinking was, That is not Jesus. Jesus does not terrorize or threaten. How can those people possibly invoke the name of Jesus and think it’s okay? That Jesus would agree with them?

My anger slowly shifted to fear as I let the events of the past year resurface in my mind. The destruction of COVID, the isolation of quarantine, the rise of racial tensions, a wildly toxic political environment, my own hardships, and now this.

How much more Jesus? How much longer do we have to suffer through this?

I imagine that Jesus felt a similar way when He went to the Garden of Gethsemane to pray. In Matthew 26, it says, “an intense feeling of great sorrow plunged [Jesus’] soul into deep sorrow and agony” (v. 37 TPT). That “[Jesus] walked a short distance away, and overcome with grief, he threw himself face down on the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if there is any way you can deliver me from this suffering, please take it from me.’ (v. 39).

The Messiah, the one person who knew of God’s plans in full and knew without a shadow of a doubt that God would fulfill those promises to His people, fell face down in the dirt and cried out in fear. He asked God if there was a way to “deliver [him] from this suffering” (v. 42). Despite being the Son of God, He was afraid and overwhelmed by the brokenness of the world around Him.
 
This might be one of my favorite stories of Jesus, maybe because I see so much of myself in it. But also, because we see Jesus acknowledge His fears and refuse to let them speak louder than the promises God has spoken over Him.
 
If you keep reading the story, it tells us that Jesus returns from praying only to be greeted by Judas and the mob who came to arrest Him. If I had to guess, Jesus knew that mob was coming for Him when He entered that garden. But He so fiercely believed in the promises that God had made to Him that He walked out of that garden, with the taste of fear still in His mouth, to pay the debt that we never could.

Reading those verses, I see Jesus grapple with the same pain and fear that we do every day. But He refuses to let it rule over Him.

When I think about the past year of my life and the moments where I’ve questioned my faith, they’ve almost all been out of a place of fear. Fear of not knowing what the future holds or fear of losing my family and friends or even fear that God has forgotten about me. And I wish that I could say that all I had to do to rid myself of that fear was to say a simple prayer and they went away. But that is not the case.
 
Nearly every day, I grapple with fears just like you do. Just like Jesus did. And every time I do, I have to remind myself to not let the fear win.

It is completely fair to look at the events of the past year and begin to question. What is not okay is to let your fear be the driving force in your life. Our questions do not intimidate or worry God. If you are sitting in a place of doubt, I urge you to go to God with them. You may not always get an answer but I can assure you that peace is something that God is always willing to offer His children in abundance.
 
Lord, give us a kingdom perspective. Would we see the world and the injustice that surrounds us and would we let ourselves grieve and be bothered. Lord would you give us the strength to not run away from pain and fear, but to actually stand firm and partner with bringing Your kingdom to earth. Would our hearts, minds, and spirits be rightly aligned with You and Your character, and would we be people who love unconditionally wherever we go. Come and strengthen us Lord, and do whatever it takes for Your kingdom to come and be on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.
 
Author | Ansley Davenport