January 10 – I Will Trust and Not Be Afraid

January 10 – I Will Trust and Not Be Afraid

Isaiah 12:1-6

“In that day you will say: ‘I will praise you, O Lord. Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you have comforted me. Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation’” (Isaiah 12:1-2).

Do you think about how much you might make God angry?  I try not to because I’m afraid of what the truth might be.  We know what God’s righteous wrath can bring about, and can’t imagine praising Him through that … especially if it is directed at us.  However, God’s anger turns away rather immediately when we repent.  At that point, he comforts us.  What more can we do than to praise him?

Isaiah goes on to say that we have nothing to fear from God.  He is our salvation.  Why would we fear the one person who wants nothing more than to have us as friends?  Oh, I fear disappointing my friends, but I am not afraid of them.  I feared the anger of my parents, because Dad always started any conversation surrounding my punishment by telling me how I had disappointed him.

I had always feared his wrath, until the day Mom made me call him after I had put a dent in the car.  When I got him on the phone and began telling him what had happened, his first question … before anything else, was “Are you alright?”  He was more concerned with my well being than he was with the cost which would be incurred in fixing the damage.  While, as adults, we know that of course, that is the way he would respond; as a teenager, I was prepared for so much worse.

We often react in much the same manner with God.  We find it so difficult to believe that He is more interested in filling our lives with joy and good things than punishing us for our sins, that we distort the relationship God has spent eternity trying to establish with us.

“Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things; let this be known to all the world. Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel among you” (Isaiah 12:5-6).

The Lord has done glorious things for each of us.  These things are the foundation for our trust.  Praise the Lord!