We can all become overwhelmed by worries and fears. But there is good news! Deuteronomy 31:8 states God's truth: "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
We can trust in the promises made by our heavenly Father. We don't have to worry because He promises to take care of us. The Lord insists on repeating many times over: "Do not worry; I am here. I will take care of you."
This is not an easy thing to do because we are born unbelievers. We are born distrusting. We are born fearful. We look around and see the world as it is, finding all sorts of reasons to be fearful and worry.
But God gives us the choice to say, "I will not be afraid." We must choose to rely on Him and to rest in Him. Again, this does not come naturally. If it did, God wouldn't need to repeat it! But He does repeat it many times throughout His Word because He knows that we are very slow to grasp His truth.
Psalm 23 acknowledges the reality of dark times in our lives ("Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death ..."). Think about what a shadow is. It's something that stems from a tangible object standing between you and the light. The shadow reflects that object, but we often can't even identify the object because we're too consumed with its shadow!
We can spend our lives fearing the shadow of things that never come to pass. But we must choose to trust. We must choose to not fear. We can even find enjoyment in His comfort in the middle of dark times (Psalm 23:4)! Hebrews 13:6 prompts us to, "say with confidence, 'the Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.'"
God promises to take care of us. As we strive to "seek first His kingdom and His righteousness," guess what? "All these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:33). Now there's a promise worth rejoicing in!
