Fear

Isaiah 50:10

There are stretches in life when you do everything right and still feel lost. You read your Bible. You pray. You show up on Sunday. And yet the fog stays. The confusion lingers. Some of us are walking through one of those stretches right now, and the hardest part isn’t the darkness itself. It’s wondering whether we did something wrong to end up in it.

Isaiah addresses that very tension. In the middle of a passage about God’s faithful servant, the prophet pauses and asks a pointed question: “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God” (Isaiah 50:10, ESV).

Notice what Isaiah does here. He describes someone who fears God and obeys. Someone doing the right things. And that same person is walking in darkness. The two are not contradictions. Faithfulness does not always come with clarity. Sometimes we’re doing exactly what God has asked, and the path still feels like driving a back road at midnight with no headlights. That doesn’t mean we’ve wandered off course. It means we’re being asked to trust in a deeper way, the kind that has nothing to hold onto but God Himself.

What helps in those seasons is what Isaiah says a few verses later: “Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you” (Isaiah 51:1–2, ESV). When the road ahead is dim, God tells us to look back. Remember the ones who walked this way before you. Abraham left everything and followed a God he couldn’t see. Sarah waited decades for a promise that made no sense. What they had was a God who kept His word.

We stand in that same line. Every grandmother who prayed through her grief. Every father who kept showing up at church when his heart was heavy. They are quiet proof that this path has been walked before, and that the One who led them through will lead us too.

If that’s where you are today, in the fog, still trying to be faithful, I want you to know something. The darkness is not evidence that God has left. It may be the very place He’s teaching us to rely on Him alone. Not our feelings. Not our circumstances. Just His name and His promises.

So let’s keep walking. The dark will not last, but His faithfulness will.

Read: Isaiah 32-37

Today’s Passage: Isaiah 35:4

The headlines assault us daily with an unrelenting stream of troubling news—terrorism, economic instability, natural disasters, and wars. Each story can fill believers with fear and anxiety, draining us emotionally until we wonder if anything good remains in this world. Yet amid this uncertainty, Isaiah 32-37 offers a powerful reminder of God’s faithfulness and protection.

Throughout these chapters, Isaiah presents a beautiful contrast: the promise of Christ’s coming kingdom (Isaiah 32:1-8, 15-20) and the Lord’s assurance of victory over our enemies (Isaiah 33:5-6, 21-22; 34:8; 35:4, 10; 37:5-7, 22-35). The central message rings clear in Isaiah 35:4: ‘Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.”‘ This verse encourages believers to stand firm in God’s power during difficult times.

This assurance isn’t a generic promise for everyone—Isaiah is speaking directly to believers. For those who trust in the Lord, fear doesn’t have to be our default response. We don’t need to sit around worrying, allowing anxiety to rob us of joy. The reason is beautifully simple: He is our God. As Isaiah 59:19 reminds us, ‘When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD will lift a standard against him.’ This assurance helps believers stand firm and trust in God’s protection.

When we genuinely believe in the Lord, nothing can defeat us. Through obedience comes the victory that Jesus won on the cross. We are His adopted children, and He will defend us. Romans 8:31 asks the rhetorical question that should settle our hearts: “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

However, this promise doesn’t mean life will be easy. If Jesus is our example—and He faced tremendous hardship—we can expect struggles too. We’re engaged in a daily battle against the world, the flesh, and Satan. Each seeks to defeat us and hinder our walk with the Lord.

Fear is one of Satan’s most effective weapons, and he wields it with precision. When we doubt God’s power, give in to worry, or forget what the Lord has done, the enemy gains a foothold in our lives. But we must not accept fear into our hearts when the Lord is just one prayer away. Remember: fear is the opposite of faith.

As 2 Timothy 1:7 declares, “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” In these uncertain times, let us cling to God’s promises in Isaiah, standing firm in faith rather than cowering in fear. When fear rises, turn in prayer and cling to the promises of God (Isa. 35:4) so that our hearts are reminded of who our God is.

Central Haywood Church of Christ

Serving God from the mountains of North Carolina

Tag

When the Dark Won’t Lift

Standing Firm: Trusting God’s Promises in Troubled Times

Fear vs. Faith

Risk: Oversold and Underplayed.