A Help in times of Trouble

Psalm 46

Psalm 46 has eleven verses, and it spoke to me in two areas; “God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”  That is the central theme, but I would like us to examine verses two and three.  “Therefore, we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

For fear to work, one has to believe the source of that fear can do them harm.  I hope you understand that fear is a great sales tool; it can also be a motivator but not a good one.  I ask Google, and they took me to a site called “The Daily EGG,” a very helpful article about how fear is used to sell you and me in many areas of life.  I will only use a tiny part of the paper; “Let’s review before we take a look at some examples of fear in marketing and advertising. To use fear to drive someone to action you must prove the following to the consumer,

1. You are likely to be affected
2. When it affects you, it will be painful
3. You have the ability to avoid this pain

Let’s be clear, marketers will find it very difficult to manufacture a fear that doesn’t exist.  The right approach is to point out a fear that already exists, empathize with that fear, and then remove the threat with your solution.”

As a person who spent 41 years of his life in sales, let me share one example I used in the corner office of a Plant Manager in the chemical and oil business.  This question, what keeps you awake at night?  It was always the same answer, downtime.  Each hour a plant is down, it can cost a fantastic amount of money, and with our technology we could give them some better sleeping time.

This has been my measuring device, how often is it advertised, take gold, for example, it is always marketed on fear, the crash is coming.  I could fill this paper with an example of how fear is sold in every area of life, but let me ask this question, one I’ve often ask of myself; if God is my refuge and strength, why worry, will He not always be present in times of trouble?

Over 80 times, the word fear is used in the Bible; let’s look at what God said to the Prophet Isaiah and told him to share it with us.  You will find it in Isaiah 43:1-7, and I’m sharing only verse 1 b, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”  Has the blood of Jesus redeemed you?  If so, you are God’s child, and Jesus told us to cast our cares on Him, for He cares for us.  And now verse seven, “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”  That all who have bowed a knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and received the grace of the finished work of the cross and looks to our Lord who has risen and sits at the right hand of God. 

I will close with this word from Jesus found in Luke 12:4-5, “I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. ⁵ But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you; fear him.”  Now let us be abundantly clear on what Jesus is saying for Scripture is very clear that hell was designed for the devil and his angels, not man.  But it is your choice, and you can choose to receive the gift of the cross and the victory over death, sin, and the grave through the blood of Jesus, or you can choose hell.  Many terrific people by the world standard choose to reject Christ and go on doing what they had done, but a Holy God states our good work is as filthy rags in his sight.  I’ve even heard a foolish person say if my dogs are not going to heaven, I do not want to go, but I learned in my eight-grade biology class that we are all of the animal classification, but the teacher said what makes us different is we have a soul.  She would be fired today for making that statement.  I already knew that because my parents made sure we understood what God did, and one can find that in Genesis 1:26-27.  ^“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice