What are you afraid of?
I read a book recently on the fear of God (Recovering Our Sanity by Michael Horton) that addressed our modern fears. Horton made the point that when we properly fear God, we understand God as the ultimate power in our lives, and since we have God's approval, our other fears fade into the background, because we don't have anything to be afraid of since we have been named and claimed by Almighty God. (It sounds easy when I say it, but gets much harder when I try and live it!) In our modern lives, we let our fears get disordered, and so we end up fearing all sorts of things more than God, and then we end up forgetting that God can prevent all those fears from harming us, so we end up paralyzed.
Or, as Nehemiah is talking about, his enemies were trying to make him afraid so that he would sin. His sin would then lead to dishonor, and that would damage his leadership of the people to restore Jerusalem. There was a lot riding on this! Fortunately, Nehemiah kept his fears in the right order, and because he feared God, he didn't fear his enemies.
May we be so wise as to fear God before all else, and may this perspective allow our other fears to diminish in their hold on our lives.
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