Fear thou not; for I am with thee . . . v10
As a young Christian in Form Five, I would get up very early in the morning to pray and to read the scriptures before getting ready to catch the 6:15 a.m. Foh Hup bus from Taynton View, Cheras to my school MBSKL downtown. Getting up so early in the morning, sitting all alone by myself in the living room posed a difficulty for me: I was afraid of ghosts!
I was involved in divinations and psychic practices before I believed in the Lord Jesus, and I had stayed briefly in a haunted house a few years earlier. Hence, there was a fear factor in being alone while everybody else was still asleep. I turned to the Lord in prayer, somewhat desperately, asking for his protection from evil spirits, using whatever words I could find as a young believer who didn't know how to pray very well. Coincidentally, and I believe that it was allowed by God's will, as I opened my old King James Bible, I came across Isaiah 41:10.
I had not read this verse nor had I heard it being preached in sermons before. That morning in 1976, it leapt out of the page at me. Whilst I do not encourage Christians to go to their Bibles for random messages like some kind of fortune telling machines, I am persuaded that coming across this verse in Isaiah 41 on that occasion was God given. It was a very personal message, for in the English of the KJV, the "thou" and the "thee" refers to the second person singular. It spoke to me personally and it relieved me of the fear factor I was facing.
For the next minute or two, I read with great joy and confidence that God was with me. I wasn't alone. He was my God, right there at a time of looming apprehension. He would strengthen me and help me. He would uphold me with his righteous right hand. Some versions of the Bible translates the last part as his "victorious right hand"
Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand. (RSV)
This morning, thirty-three years later, as I begin work, I am reminded of this verse again. The fear factor has since left me. Today I am no longer a fearful person, sorely afraid of spirits. By the victorious right hand of God Almighty, who is with me, the fear factor has ceased.
God has become my fearless factor.
