Fear is something that all of us have faced or will face at some point in time (or many times) during our lives here on planet earth. I don’t believe it was part of God’s original intent for us to be “tormented” by fear (see I John 4:18). 

Fear came with the fall. Adam and Eve hid themselves from their Creator who had been walking in fellowship with them in the garden every evening until they bought into the enemy’s lie that they could become “like God” when they partook of the forbidden fruit. When God asked them why they hid themselves, one of their responses was “we were afraid.”

I was out walking one day this past week and just meditating on Psalm 23. Probably the most familiar psalm in the scriptures, it is loaded with truth and insight. I have spent many hours thinking about those six verses and they have spoken to me personally on many occasions. I was thinking about verse four this week. “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

We love the mountaintop experiences where we can see for miles, get fresh revelation and see down into the valleys, though not in detail. But, very little grows on the mountaintop. You have to go down into the valley to taste of all the lovely vegetation, both that which grows in the wild and that which can be cultivated because there is a water source close by. 

When I was in Malawi, Africa, last year, we had to traverse some very steep, mountainous trails down into the valley where the well site had been dug. Only professional, deep-drilling rigs could get through all the rock, etc. on the top of the mountain and they were not able to get that kind of equipment up into these very remote areas. We could barely get a four-wheel drive pickup truck back fairly close to most of them, and sometimes still had to walk a long distance to get to the well site. Those who had any kind of water available had lovely gardens but they were very close to the water source in the valley. Women walked several times a day for contaminated water before the safe water was available. The men (and women) who cultivated the gardens had to walk a good distance from their homes at the higher elevations.

The “valley of the shadow of death” is only a shadow for those of us who know the Lord as our personal savior because we already have eternal life and physical death will only be a temporary transition from this early “tent” (our bodies) to our glorified, eternal body. However, we don’t even have to be under that shadow if we are under “the shadow of His wings” (Psalm 91:1). If you are under the wings, you are very close to the source. Little chicks find comfort and protection under the wings of their mother and she has them close to her at all times. While under her wings, they are oblivious to what is going on around them. Birds of prey cannot pick them off and bad weather does not affect them. They do not fear.

I am so grateful the Lord has made a place of safety and refuge “under the shadow of His wings.” Take the time to read all of Psalm 91 this week and meditate on it until you believe it. With all of the crazy things happening around us right now, we must find that place of peace from the storms. We cannot allow fear to torment us like it is so many people right now. I listened to the voice of one young girl who was at the concert in Las Vegas and she was just hysterical (and probably in traumatic shock) from being right there in the midst of all of that horrible carnage — seeing things no young person should have to see and experience.

And yet there are many things each one of us faces on a regular basis that could cause us to fear. We may never experience something like the event in Las Vegas, but getting a bad diagnosis from a doctor or even just having symptoms that get your mind to thinking “what if …  ?” or other things like a financial crisis is enough to cause “torment” in our lives. I am convinced in my own heart that only God’s love manifesting itself in my life on a daily basis can keep me from experiencing that kind of fear. “Perfect love casts out fear.” (I John 4:17-18) That means quality times of fellowship with Him and in His word on a very regular basis.

I can testify that this practice in my own life has kept me in a place of peace in the midst of the storms that I have experienced in my own life, especially lately. The more I have learned to stay “under the shadow of His wings,” the less I am affected by what is going on around me. I still have a choice to make each and every time fear speaks to me, but more and more, I am choosing to believe God’s Word and it really does keep me in “perfect peace” while I am abiding in that place of safety.