I’ve read this passage countless times: I will fear no evil, but the idea always seemed unattainable to me. We’re surrounded by evil. What makes a person walk into a store for the sole purpose of committing mass murder? Pure evil. Yet God tells us not to be afraid. How do we get there?
Here’s the answer:
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me.
We can face the unimaginable when we know that God’s comforting presence will be with us every step of the way. And yet, some might ask, “If God is with us, why does evil prevail in our day?”
Because He’s given man the freedom to choose. And some choose evil. Now, we have a choice to make. Will we choose a fear reaction to the evil we face every day?
Recently on Middays with Susie Larson, I spoke with Dan White, Jr. about his book, “Love Over Fear: Facing Monsters, Befriending Enemies, and Healing Our Polarized World.” Dan made an interesting observation. He said,
“Just as perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), destructive fear casts out love.”
Just as perfect love casts out fear, destructive fear casts out love. The devil wants us to react in fear.
Dan further writes:
“Jesus is calling us out of our survival instincts, out of our politics of fear, out of our perceptions of others, into a lush landscape of love. We sense it, we feel it beneath our feet, but we look up and see it overhead—fear and love are at war.”
Fear and love are at war. On which side will we stand?
I pondered David’s Psalm, and paused once again on this declaration:
I will fear no evil;
For You are with me.
I’m determined to live this way. I will fear no evil because God Himself is with me. Nothing touches me that doesn’t first filter through His precious hands. This world is a broken place with broken people. Our worst enemies are in desperate need of God’s saving grace. But they’ll never see even a glimpse of its saving power if we’re all locked up in fear.
Christians and non-Christians alike have developed habits of reaction. We’re so engaged in the public discourse that we’ve disengaged from God’s invitation to radical, personal transformation. Yet, it’s only through a transformed life that evil will be excised from our culture. It’s only the humble, loving, godly soul that has the power to introduce our suffering Savior to a world in need.
At some point we have to come to grips with this truth: our fear reactions are only adding to the problem. Jesus calls us beyond our natural reaction into a supernatural response that comes from His heart, through ours.
Dan White, Jr. wrote,
“The more I’ve meditated on the glorious revealing of God in the person of Jesus, the more my fear has fallen away, and the more love has sprouted in its place.”
Exactly.
“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” –Jesus (John 13:34-35).
Dan White Jr. co-leads Axiom Church, a developing network of missional communities in the urban neighborhoods of Syracuse, New York. Dan works as a consultant and missional coach with the V3 Movement, which trains, plants, and seeds missional expressions throughout the country. He is the author of several books and his writing has been featured in The Christian Post, The Missional Times, Next Generation Church Leader, Outreach Magazine, Jesus Creed, Church Leaders Magazine, and the Huffington Post.
I will fear no evil
