Each day that passes by, we get a new revelation of the word of God.

One early morning as I was studying and meditating upon the word of God, going through Psalm 91, and then in verse 5, I saw a new meaning that I’ve not seen before, though I’ve read through this scripture over twenty times.

Now verse 5 reveals a newer indepth meaning to my soul. It reads thus:

“Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;”

Now, this command continues to verse 6 before the promises began from verse 7 to 16.

And that is it. The new revelation that dawned upon my consciousness. A command – “Thou shall not”.

Simply put, doing otherwise, is tantamount to contravening God’s special decree; and  here of course, is the solution to many trials.

Sometimes the challenges we face are due to our own fears, and when we can predicate our faith upon the word of God and stand upon our sure foundation, the foe is, but routed.

In Isaiah 41:10, the Bible says “Fear not; for I am with thee, be not dismayed for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness”.

Further we see here, and in many parts of scripture, God telling us not to fear, and it is indeed a command. Now let me make it clear. If your life is full of fears, there is little, God can do to help you. Being afraid, is unequivocally tantamount to giving that, of which/whom you are afraid, the glory accrueable to, and deserving of God alone.

Now let’s borrow a leaf from Job’s predicament. Job declared thus: “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me” Job 3:25.

It behoves on me that Job as a result of his great affluence, was in constant fear as many of our rich men today are, afraid of the unforeseen, of the unpredictable. So it is with people who have not built up their trust in God; but what I couldn’t understand was that Job, was a man who feared God. Notwithstanding, Satan, knowing that Job was in constant fear of all these, went to beseech God to be granted permission to test out his faith in God, using these same things that Job was afraid of, and being careful of befalling him.

No wonder the Lord Jesus says, “he who loves his life losses it, he who hates his life in this life, will keep it for the eternal life”. Do you find any relationship in this verse with the topic of discourse?

Now let me explain. Those who love their lives in this world, are afraid to do anything that could bring them shame, they are afraid to preach Jesus to the world, they are afraid of what people will say, or how people would look at them, they are afraid to do anything for the glory of the kingdom of God, they are afraid not to lose their present worldly positions in places of enjoyment or pleasure, so even when they see and know the truth, they cover it up so that it would not affect them that they might stay in position. We could go on and on, but these are just few.

But the fear of the Lord, is the beginning of wisdom… Psalm 111: 10a; Proverb 9:10a

Looking back at our earlier passage Psalm 91:5 again, we see what God says here is a command, “Thou shall not…” “Thou shall not steal”, “Thou shall not commit adultery”, “Thou shall not bear false witness against thine neighbour”, “Thou shall not be afraid”. They are all commands that are given to be obeyed.

I pray that God will give us the understanding to know and be conscious of these things, to make Him our fear, that we may not be afraid of our circumstances, challenges, troubles or enemies, knowing fully, that He who is in us, is greater than he that is in the world 1 John 4:4.

Amen