Whenever Halloween approaches, I always see things such as spider webs, ghosts, and skeletons appearing in yards around our neighborhood. This year, who needs a skeleton or a ghost to scare you? There are plenty of real-life threats to frighten us. Pulling into a gas station and seeing what the numbers are on the price signboard can be a scary experience. A weekly trip to the grocery store could frighten you when you push your cart up to the conveyor belt and unload your groceries, waiting to see what the total figure on your receipt will be. There is talk of food shortages due to the war in Ukraine. The stock market isn’t doing so well. Every day there seems to be more crime on the streets. North Korea is back to making missile tests, and Putin is using that other bad “n” word that is sometimes used in threats of attack.

No doubt Satan smirks when he sees God’s children succumbing to fear. God’s Word provides lots of advice for fighting against fear. Let’s think about a few of the many great encouragements we find in the Bible. When we worry about being short on money to buy the things we need, we can remember the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25-34. He told His disciples not to worry about what they would eat or drink or wear. He reminded them that our Heavenly Father feeds the birds and that we are much more valuable to Him than they are.

When we fear the violence of criminals or threats of war, we can remember David’s words in Psalm 27:1. He said “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” [KJV] Although David’s trust in the Lord was sometimes strong, like us he sometimes wavered. It seems to sometimes require a conscious decision in order to trust in the Lord. In Psalm 56:3 David said, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”[KJV]

I recall a verse my mom would quote to me in my childhood, when nighttime fears overcame me. It was found in Isaiah 26:3. It says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.”[KJV] Those are the exact works Mom spoke, because I’m quoting the King James Version of the Bible in this article, rather than one of the contemporary versions that didn’t exist in my early days.

Things do seem scarier at night, just like on Halloween. In Matthew 14, the disciples had a scary experience in the wee hours of the morning. It was “the fourth watch of the night.” According to bibleref.com, the Romans divided the night into four “watches,” the fourth watch being from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. The disciples had rowed out into the sea while Jesus remained behind to pray all alone. The sixth chapter of John tells us that they had rowed about three or four miles out. The winds had been strong, causing the boat to be tossed about in the waves. The disciples suddenly “cried out for fear” when they spotted a figure walking across the water. They imagined it to be a spirit, or as we would probably say, a “ghost.” Jesus immediately reassured them, saying, “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.” In this well known story Peter said that if it really was Jesus He should invite him to come walking to Him on the water. As Peter began walking, suddenly the strength of the wind caused him to lose his faith and begin sinking. Jesus grabbed Peter’s hand and asked, “Oh, thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” Like Peter, we mustn’t let the darkness of our current world and the turbulent winds of our circumstances cause us to be afraid and lose our faith and begin to sink into despair.

There’s another word of encouragement that I remember Jesus gave. As time goes by we find that our circumstances seem more and more like the end times events Jesus described in Luke 21—wars, earthquakes, famines. It’s a sign we may be close to the time Jesus comes to snatch away His “bride” (the saints of the Church). In Luke 21:28, Jesus said, “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” [KJV] At that time believers will meet the Lord in the air and will trade in (redeem) their mortal bodies for immortal ones—something we can greatly look forward to in “scary” times.

Below is a song that speaks of asking the Lord to keep us safe in His hand and of someday being in a place “where the storms never darken the skies.”