Facing our Fears with Faith

Lamar Cervantes
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Greeley, Colorado
September 19, 2021  

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.                                                                    Hebrews 11:1                                                         

Dear Church Family,

I can’t find the words to thank you for your phone calls, your visits, your cards, your meals, and your monetary gifts during this time. Your many expressions of love are deeply appreciated.

I’m especially grateful to my Sylvia and my Lanetta and Juvenal who have gone above and beyond to help me at home.

My journey began with sharp pain on my low back. Subsequently, my physician ordered a CT scan which revealed a mass in my lower abdomen. I was referred to an oncologist who quickly scheduled surgery. I was diagnosed with stage 5 cancer, and I am confident my life is in God’s hands and that God has a purpose for my life. Your prayers are a blessing to me, and they will sustain me now and throughout my recovery. I will attend church as I am able and will likely enter the sanctuary as inconspicuously as I can, possibly a few minutes after church starts and leave a few minutes before the worship service ends. I know you will understand as my immune system is increasingly being compromised and the medical staff asked me to avoid crowds and a long list of do’s and don’t’s.

I would like to share this reflection with you:

What can God’s people do when they find themselves in fearful places?

Faith in the face of fear is a common theme across God's word in large part because such faith was required so often of God's people. The more Christians face opposition, discrimination, and trauma today, the more vital such faith will be for us as well.

In Psalm 69, David cries out: "Save me, O God! For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me. I am weary with my crying out; my throat is parched. My eyes grow dim with waiting for my God" (vv. 1–3).

These are not encouraging words that we’re hoping for.

It gets worse: "More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause; mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies" (v. 4). And even worse: "I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother's sons"    (v. 8).

David understandably prays for God to "deliver me from sinking in the mire" (v. 14) and to "ransom me because of my enemies!" (v. 18). He adds: "I am afflicted and in pain; let your salvation, O God, set me on high!" (v. 29).

However, here's his next prayer and the reason I've chosen to share his psalm with us today: "I will praise the name of God with a song; I will magnify him with thanksgiving" (v. 30).

We have no evidence that God has yet answered any of David's prayers. So far as we know, he is still in the "deep mire," hated by his enemies and rejected by his family. But he chooses to praise and magnify his God anyway.

Then he makes a claim that we can take to heart: "This will please the Lᴏʀᴅ more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs" (v. 31).

Here's the powerful lesson: when we worship and trust God, not because of our circumstances but despite them, we please the Lord of the universe in ways that empower and transform us and our witness.

"He makes me tread on my high places"

We find such faith throughout the Scriptures: from Joseph, who saw God's providence in his brothers' betrayal (Genesis 50:20); to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who refused the king's idolatry at the risk of their lives (Daniel 3:16–18); to the apostles who proclaimed the death and resurrection of Jesus to the very men who arranged his execution (Acts 4:5–12).

The next time you need encouragement, take a moment to read Hebrews 11, where you'll discover story after story of women and men who trusted and served God despite their circumstances. Then read 2 Corinthians 11, where you'll encounter Paul's catalogue of suffering and his testimony of faith.

The prophet Habakkuk's prayer speaks for them all: "Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lᴏʀᴅ; I will take joy in the God of my salvation" (Habakkuk 3:17–18).

Here was the result of such unconditional faith: "Gᴏᴅ, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places" (v. 19).

We can sum up the process: we find ourselves in fearful places, we choose to trust God anyway, our faith pleases our Father, and we experience his presence, power, and transcendent peace.

Paul put this process into a promise: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6–7).

Church family, know that I love you and that I will be okay and that my family will be okay. We serve an awesome and an amazing God who never makes a mistake and whose will is always perfect. We are never alone.

I leave you with this word from God: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction and faithful in prayer.” (Romans 12:12)