Pray for courage, practice joy ~ Pope Francis

II Chronicles 32:7 (verse 46 of 145)

Hezekiah rallied the people, saying, “Be strong! Take courage! Don’t be intimidated by the king of Assyria and his troops—there are more on our side than on their side. He only has a bunch of mere men; we have our GOD to help us and fight for us!

Dear Reader,

First, I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you for traveling with me this far. We’re about one-third of the way through the 145 “Do not be afraid” Bible verses, having posted about one per week for the past six months. Meanwhile, I think fear is becoming even more common in our daily lives because so much around us actually encourages us to be afraid.

The background for this week’s “Do not be afraid” verse is similar to last week’s—an invading army threatens the people of Israel. Actually, it’s the same story we covered just two weeks ago in this post titled "He wept” (II Kings 6:16), only retold here in II Chronicles. The Assyrian army is outside fortified Jerusalem, ready to attack. Each day to demoralize the people inside the city, the King of Assyria sends messengers to the city wall to speak to the people there in Hebrew, to spread fear by telling them how powerful the Assyrian king is and to ridicule King Hezekiah’s promise that God will save them. Again and again, the message is there is no power that can prevail against Assyria’s might, so they might as well side with the winning team—the team that can keep them safe.

It’s an old, proven, powerful tactic. To purposely make people afraid not only has the power to demoralize, but it turns our attention away from the Divine and tempts us to put our trust instead in whatever leader/institution we think can keep us “safe.”

Last week, the world mourned the death of Pope Francis. Pope Francis spoke out about fear, stating in a sermon almost exactly one year ago that fear was the nemesis of faith.¹ Earlier in his papacy, he had strong words for communities that accept fear as normal, saying fear, “harms us. It weakens us, it diminishes us. It even paralyzes us. . . Fear is not a Christian attitude,” the Pope said.²

To fight the prevalence of fear, the Pope said we should pray for the courage it takes to overcome fear. He also encouraged Christians to practice joy, which he said is not “a fleeting cheerfulness,” but stems from the deep knowledge that no matter what sorrows come our way or what events unfold in the world, we know “the Lord reigns.”

We already know how the Bible story above ends. The King of Assyria retreats. He was eventually killed by his own sons, putting an end to his worldly power.

I don’t think overcoming fear is easy, and I think it’s incredibly hard to do on our own, which is why I started this project. I believe we need community to support us.

So here’s a favor I’d like to ask. If you find these posts helpful to counter the prevalence of fear all around us and useful as signposts to Biblical examples of faith, courage, and even joy in the face of fear, please consider sharing Facing Fear with a friend. I’ve included links below with my humble thanks.

1. https://catholicreview.org/fear-is-the-great-nemesis-of-faith-pope-says-at-general-audience/?utm

2. https://angelusnews.com/news/us-world/pope-francis-fear-and-joylessness-are-signs-of-bad-spiritual-health/?utm

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash