For me, the "what ifs" began from a young age: What if there's a shark in the pool? What if there’s a monster hiding under my bed? Now, I no longer fear wild sea creatures at water parks, or monsters waking me from sleep, but irrational fears are not past me. Over the years, the "what ifs" may have become less childlike, yet some of my fears are still improbable.
Our minds, however, are wise enough to recognize that improbability does not equate to impossibility. While it's unlikely that I have a hand spasm causing me to lose control of the knife and cut off my left finger, it’s not impossible. It's also doubtful that a tsunami will cause life-altering devastation to my family and me in the Midwest, but it's not beyond the realm of possibility. Then, there are the more legitimate fears: car crashes, cancer, job loss, or the death of a loved one.
Telling yourself, "No, that won’t happen" may ease the worry, but there still lingers that "what if?" What if it happened? Could it not? Maybe then, our solution to fear is not to say, "No, that cannot happen," but to fix our gaze elsewhere, so that even if — even if it happened — we would be assured of our safety.
I realize that using the word "safety" in light of speaking about bodily dismemberment, life-threatening disease, and the loss of someone we hold dear seems contradictory. It's paradoxical to say that a person can face immense threat while also being assured of their safety. Let me be clear: I’m not talking about safety imagined through ridiculous affirmations; I’m talking about real safety that is more real than any danger.
What is Safety?
First, we have to dispose of the idea that safety is merely a physical state of being. Even the non-Christian world is aware of this; that is why millionaires with the most skilled security guards, ample food, and enough money to hire the best private jet pilots, commit suicide. They feel threatened, unsafe, and depressed by the things which transcend the physical realm.
They fear the Transcendent Being. They are terrified of God, yet more taunted by the thought of submitting to Him. That is a fearful thing — it is the most unsafe and dangerous position one can be in.
Fleeing from fear by fixing our eyes on the physical realm is like running from a rogue dog — we may be safe for a short while, but eventually our tormentor will meet us. You can’t outrun that dog; he will catch up to you.
And so it is with God: If we attempt to flee His wrath, we will only be safe for a short while — soon He will meet us with judgment. But we decide if He grants us justification. Jesus is our true safety. Any person who trusts in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins can rest assured that they are safe from the greatest calamity.
My point is this: Physical safety does not bring freedom from the fear of danger; freedom from sin does. Jesus is why we don’t deal with the "what ifs" by saying, "No, that won’t happen." When we deal with our fear in this way, we train our minds to take peace in the physical rather than the spiritual. In our effort to ease our minds by reassuring ourselves of our physical safety, we shift our focus from our deliverer to the danger itself. The disposition of our hearts should be fearlessness, even in the face of danger, because we have Jesus; not having Jesus is the only true cause for fear.
If we have Jesus, even the realist of physical harms cannot overcome us. I don’t mean to say, "Since you are more than a conqueror through Jesus, you will never suffer sickness or loss." However, I do mean to say, "Since you are more than a conqueror through Jesus, you will never be overcome by your fears, as real and threatening as they are." You will not be exempt from tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, but it will not be the ultimate death of you (Romans 8:37-38). Because Christians are more than conquerors through Christ, they will say, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (1 Cor. 15:55-57). Christians will suffer physical death, but not eternal spiritual death in hell.
The Death of Fear
But what of our earthly fears? Do they deserve no attention at all? Does being a Christian mean we can’t fear any physical harm?
Scripture doesn’t give us a list of fears that are irrational and should be shrugged off and then ones to really fret over. It tells us this: "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt. 10:28). Thus, the only cause for terror is to face God, who can kill both body and soul. Not even a man who can kill the body is to be feared.
Then, in his letter to the Philippians, Paul says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Phil. 4:6). Let us take that word "anything" seriously. In the command to not fear anything is included the greatest earthly suffering, yet none of it can ultimately harm the Christian because suffering is not a condemnation; it's preparation for an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4:17).
The apostle Peter also calls Christians to something similar. As he’s speaking to women who ought to win their husbands over with good conduct, he exhorts them to be like the holy women of old. Then Peter presents this striking sentence: "Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening" (1 Pet. 3:6). He does not deny that there are things that are legitimately frightening; instead, he calls women to godliness by not even fearing that which is frightening. Meaning, there will be things in our lives that are legitimately frightening, yet they should never cause us to lose hope.
Lastly, there’s the passage that has comforted my soul and sobered my mind on many occasions when I am filled with fear — whether that fear is ridiculously irrational or due to present circumstances. "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" (Matt. 6:25). I read Jesus' words here and think to myself, "But those are all the things I need for survival! Don’t you know, Jesus, that I’ll die without food, drink, and clothing? These are just the bare necessities." Jesus answers these questions for me, saying, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work" (John 4:34). If we seek physical food for survival, how much more should we seek spiritual food? Is this not of greater importance? Physical food satisfies the body’s earthly needs, but spiritual food satisfies the soul’s eternal needs.
All this is not to say that we don’t flee danger, pray for healing, or work so we can eat. Doing all these things can even be godly, but not without the consideration of our eternal safety bought by Christ. We are not so foolish as to think nothing bad could happen to us, yet we are not fearful to think that if the danger did come, we’d be without hope. If Christ is ours and we are His, we are eternally safe and free from the bondage of fear.
"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,'Abba! Father!'"
Romans 8:15
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