Balancing Out Fear - Introduction

‘I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’ John 16:33 NIVUK https://bible.com/bible/113/jhn.16.33.NIVUK In many courtrooms across America there is a statue of a woman. This women is blindfolded, carries a sword in her left hand and a balanced set of scales in her right hand. She is Lady Justice, and stands as a symbolic reminder of how justice should be administered fairly, impartially and without bias. However, the balance she holds in our right hand can also help us with another picture. You see, the circumstances we all are living through can causes us to be afraid. This fear comes when, in our mind, we weigh up our resources and the challenges we face, and we come to the conclusion that our resources are not enough. This is what causes the panic buying, the paranoid reactions, the deep defensiveness. It simply comes from a fear of inadequacy; a fear of not having or being enough.

What makes this worse is if we are not brought up in an encouraging environment. If we are always being told that we are not good enough, then we will start to believe it. Thus every slight challenge we meet will cause us to fear. These verses are designed as the antidote to this. They were spoken apparently as Jesus was walking from the upper room, where He'd just had the Passover meal with his disciples, to the Garden of Gethsemane, where He would be betrayed. The context shows clearly and unmistakably that Jesus was absolutely aware of what was happening and what would happen. Yet He showed no fear. And the purpose of these verses is so that the disciples will show no fear when they are, in turn, persecuted, arrested and, for most of them, martyred. That makes these words greatly poignant and highly important for us. We are facing circumstances which will cause other people to be, quite frankly, terrified. And no wonder. Facing a huge global pandemic and an economic crash is no easy thing. However, Jesus is teaching His disciples to be fearless in circumstances which are terrifying too. If we can learn His technique for managing these circumstances fearlessly then maybe we can be just as fearless too. There are three parts to the teaching in this verse, which we will use as an entry point into the verses around it. Each one of these is there to help us balance out our situation better so that our fears are balanced out not by self-talk or positive thinking or even medication, but by the solid and utterly dependable Truths of the Gospel The first of these is a simple, but powerful, statement of truth: IN CHRIST WE HAVE PEACE.