The antidote for fear!

(Alexander Smellie, "The Secret Place" 1907)  LISTEN to audio!  Download audio

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you! I have called you by your name—you are Mine!" Isaiah 43:1

God is intensely desirous to rid me of my needless fears. Does He not give me reason after reason for peacefulness, calmness and hope?

1. "Fear not," He says, "for I have redeemed you!"
  What a work it was!
  What a price it demanded!
  What a sorrow it involved!
It meant the surrender and sacrifice of His Son, His Only-Begotten, His Well-Beloved. It meant for the King of Glory, to be born in a lowly stable, with the ox and donkey and camel. After a life of suffering, it meant a stark and dreadful Cross on the Hill of Shame!

A Scottish professor, who retained to the last a childlike heart, speaking to his students one day about the atoning sacrifice of Calvary, said, with the tears running down his cheeks, "Ay, ay, do you know what it was? Do you know what it was? It was damnation—and He took it lovingly!"

It was my damnation—and He took it lovingly! And since God gave all this for me, then how can He ever abandon me? Let my heart be confident and strong.

2. There is His understanding of my case. "Fear not," He continues, "for I have called you by name!" He has such multitudes to remember, and yet He knows me individually and intimately! The stars lie along the face of the sky like bright unnumbered dust; but He knows star from star. The flowers spring up in battalions; but not a single flower is "born to blush unseen"—He knows it, and rejoices in it. There are billions of people in the world today, and I cannot grasp the tremendous aggregate; but He is familiar with each beating soul.

Just so, He comprehends . . .
  my special needs and circumstances,
  my overbearing duties,
  my sore temptations,
  my herculean difficulties,
  my subtle and persevering foes.
Should I not be strong and courageous, when the Lord of Heaven has such perfect acquaintance with me?

3. And there is His ownership of my soul. "Fear not," He commands once more, "for you are Mine!" In a sense I was always His possession; but since He purchased me with Christ's blood, I am among . . .
  His jewels,
  His trophies,
  His special possessions,
  His redeemed children!

Why should I be afraid? I am Christ's redeemed child, and He owns and keeps me!