Psalm 34:4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.
What do you fear?
In church we sing:
Whom shall I fear, Whom shall I fear?
I know who goes before me, I know who stands behind.
The God of angel armies, Is always by my side.
The one who reigns forever, He is a friend of mine.
Personally I fear no one. I may fear outcomes or circumstances, especially those of my own making, but no person.
So, “whom shall I fear?”
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1
So, “whom shall I fear?”
“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” Romans 7:15-20
The words “I,” me” and “my” occur 24 times in those six verses of Romans above.
So, “Whom shall I fear?”
As Paul wrote to the Romans above it is “I” I should fear. I fear the remnants of sin living in me. I fear that my desire to please God and do His Will comes second to my desire to please myself and do my will.
The only way to overcome that fear is found in Paul’s letter to the Galatians:
“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Galatians 2:20
So come to find out, the one person I fear, my old man, is actually a dead man. Fear has been replaced by its opposite, trust. As we read above, “So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God.”
We cannot fear and trust at the same time. Fear and trust are literally the opposite of each other. No one can serve two masters.
Choose you today, who will you serve?
As for me “I’m no longer a slave to fear!”
Billy