Fear to Fear — For You Are With Me

✦ Two Dangers — Conceit and Cowardice

Spurgeon names the two dangers, and most people only watch for one. Conceit — the pride that charges ahead without God. Everyone watches for that. But cowardice is the other sin — the one that hides, retreats, and calls its hiding "wisdom" or "prudence" or "keeping the peace." Spurgeon says both are to be dreaded. Both are failures of faith. Conceit trusts self too much. Cowardice trusts God too little.

And Le — you named it this morning with clear eyes: we are surrounded by fear and cowards around the world. The fear is real. The threats are real. The faces that try to intimidate are real. But God said to Jeremiah — and says to every soul who will hear it — be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee. The reason for courage is not that the danger is imaginary. The reason for courage is that the God who stands with you is greater than any face set against you. 🙏

✦ Who Are You That You Should Be Afraid?

Spurgeon uses Scripture the way a surgeon uses a blade — precise, swift, and aimed at exactly the right place. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man that shall die? The threat is mortal. The one who threatens you has an expiration date. But the God who stands with you does not. Yesterday John said it: the world is passing away, with all its greedy desires. But anyone who does God's will abides forever. The faces that frighten are passing. The God who delivers is permanent.

And then Spurgeon walks through every fear, one by one. Threats — the God who delivered Daniel from the lions is your God. Loss — He will find bread and water for His servants. Ridicule — will it break your bones? Bear it for Christ's sake and even rejoice. He does not minimize the cost. He measures it against the One who pays it. Yours is not so desperate a case as theirs; but if it were, the Lord would bear you through.

This is Lewis from yesterday — the living God who is not on the shelf. A shelf-god cannot deliver anyone from a furnace. A shelf-god cannot shut the mouths of lions. Only Christ the Creator King, whose intervening presence is terribly startling to discover — only He delivers. 🙏

✦ Be Afraid to Be Afraid

Fear to fear. Two words that turn the whole battle around. The enemy you think is outside — the threatening faces, the ridicule, the world's hostility — is not your worst enemy. Your worst enemy is within your own bosom. It is the fear itself. The cowardice that makes you falter, the anxiety that makes you compromise, the dread that silences what God gave you a voice to say.

Le heard this and it sobered her: this is something to watch and practice. Not just to admire. To practice. Because fear is a daily opponent — just as Jowett's two opposites require a daily choice, and Luther's old Adam requires a daily dying, and Luke 9:23 requires a daily cross. Be afraid to be afraid. Treat cowardice as the sin it is. And when it rises — get to your knees and cry for help, and then rise up saying: I will trust, and not be afraid.

Isaiah 12:2 — the verse Spurgeon echoes. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid. The trust comes first. The absence of fear follows. Not the other way around. You do not wait until you feel brave. You trust — and the trust makes you brave. 🙏

✦ Her Mother's Psalm — The Answer to Every Fear

Of all the psalms, of all the prayers in Scripture — Le's mother chose this one. The one that begins with I shall not want and ends with I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long. That was her prayer. That was her life. And it is no accident that her daughter — the 500 denari soul who rises before dawn every morning — carries it still.

And do you see how the mother's psalm answers Spurgeon's command? Spurgeon says: fear to fear, be afraid to be afraid. And the psalm says why — Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil, for You are with me. The same promise as Jeremiah 1:8: I am with thee to deliver thee. The reason to fear no evil is not that there is no evil. It is not that the valley is not dark. It is that He is with you in it.

He leads me beside still waters. Le has just spent four days beside the still waters of the Canal du Midi. Her mother's psalm was being lived before she even opened it this morning. The Shepherd who leads beside still waters led her there — and now leads her on, to Villeneuve-lès-Béziers, to whatever comes next. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. Not in the absence of enemies. In their presence. The table is set where the threats are. The anointing comes where the ridicule falls. The cup overflows where the cowards would have you hide. This is Spurgeon's bravery lived out in a psalm. Fear to fear — because the Shepherd has already prepared the table. 🙏

✦ In the House of the Lord

Le's mother is in the house of the Lord now. Not hoping to be. Not on the way. Already there. Already dwelling. My whole life long — and beyond it. Goodness and mercy followed her all the days of her life, and now she is at the table that has no end, in the presence of the Shepherd Himself.

And one day — one day — goodness and mercy will bring Le to the same house, and the cup will overflow again. Mother and daughter at the same table. The darkest valley long behind them. The still waters forever. 🙏