Three Ingredients to Fearlessness

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Ps 27:1 AV)

If we were to list a group of verses to memorize that would apply throughout our lives, verses like the above would be on that list.  David asks a question which has an obvious answer.  The obvious answer is the challenge of the question.  If the LORD is our light, salvation, and strength, then there should be no fear.  Absolutely none!  If there is, one, two, or all three are missing.

The word ‘…light…’ here can mean several things.  It can mean understanding.  It can mean the light of life, prosperity, our joy.  But the primary meaning is the light of day, day break, dawn, or light of face.  The best way I can explain it is the feeling one gets when the sun finally hits one’s face after spending the last hours of the night in a cold deer stand.  Shivering from the cold, when that bright sun hits the face, all the cold disappears from the bones.  The warmth which the sun gives is indescribable.  If the LORD is that light, then we do not have to fear the darkness of uncertainty or the coldness of the world.  His is our warmth!  We delight in His presence.

Salvation is what the LORD is all about.  To save us from our sin, death, and hell.  Along life’s way, He will save us from troubles.  He will guide with His hand and if there are trials of faith, they are only designed to make us stronger.  If we have trusted in Christ, He is our eternal salvation and by life or by death, we shall be saved from all our troubles.  Those things we fear are only temporary at best.  When eternity starts, they will all be in the past.

God is not only our strength, but our strength of life.  The book of Colossians tells us that by Christ, all things consist.  He is the one that keeps all things going.  We are alive because our Savior lives.  We are not the source or our own strength.  He is.  We fear because we believe we are the ones who are to get us out of all our fears.  But we cannot.  We are not our own strength.  He is!  We must abide in His strength and not our own.  Yielding to the power and control of the Holy Spirit is the key to abiding in His strength.  If our unlimited God is our strength, then nothing can overcome us!

If these three are present, then there is no fear.  This is what David is trying to teach us.  Let the LORD be the light of your life.  Let the LORD be the salvation of you soul.  Let the LORD be the strength of your constitution.  Then there is nothing that will be feared.