Lean on Me: How Smart Reliance Conquers Your Fears

Sometimes I feel like I’m finally getting this fear thing. I’m winning the battle and have seized the upper hand. I understand now how powerful God is and how able He is to control every moment of my life.

Then I face something new. And I get scared.

After God breaks through to me in the midst of my fear, I’m disappointed and quite surprised by myself.

How did I so easily forget what I had learned?

Sadly, I don’t have to encounter something new to cause the lapse into fear. Sometimes, it’s the very same type of situation I thought I’d licked that makes me turn away from God and follow fear.

I know I’m not the only one who’s fallen into fear without excuse. 2 Chronicles tells us of King Asa, a ruler over Judah. For the early years of his reign, he sought after God. The results were astounding.

In a time of strife all around, God gave Asa and all of Judah peace for ten years because Asa trusted in God. When the peace ended as the great army of the Ethiopians attacked Judah, it wouldn’t be surprising if Asa got scared. He had only known peace for his entire career as a ruler. A sudden war could “reasonably” scare him to death.

But he knew fear wasn’t reasonable. Trusting God was. So, he prayed for help and relied completely on God to save them from the enemy.

And that’s what God did. He obliterated the Ethiopian army and allowed Asa to conquer extra territory and spoil as a cherry on top.

God sent a prophet to commend Asa on his show of courage and faith. He told Asa, “The Lord is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you” (2 Chron. 15:2b).

What a memorable and life-shaping moment for Asa, right? It’s unforgettable. He’s sure to remember this confirmation and reward of faith in God for the rest of his days.

But he doesn’t.

As quick as the next chapter in our Bibles, Asa faces another danger. But it’s only a threat this time, not an actual attack. Baasha, the king of Israel, is building a city to effectively stop anyone from entering or leaving Judah.

Asa knows the end result of this move is likely that Baasha will attack Judah once it’s bottled up, with no chance for aid from any neighboring kingdoms.

But Judah isn’t known for getting help from neighbors anyway. They get their help from God.

Asa should know that better than anyone from personal experience. Naturally, he’ll call on God to save them again, right?

Wrong. He phones a friend instead. He convinces the king of Syria to come to his aid by attacking Baasha.

What?

Asa just said all these lovely things and, along with all of Judah, “entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul” (2 Chron. 15:12). The covenant even carried a penalty for anyone who did not seek the Lord, that they should be “put to death” (2 Chron. 15:13).

That’s a serious commitment. Asa clearly acknowledged that it was God Who had saved them from a massive army because they had faith in Him.

Asa got this. He understood how it worked—that courage and faith paid off, and God was the only One he should rely on.

Asa had beaten fear.

So what happened?

Asa stopped doing the very thing he had promised to do. He stopped seeking God.

When I stop reading the Word regularly, talking to God in prayer and bringing Him my worries and burdens, and when I stop making pleasing Him my priority in all things, I’ve stopped seeking Him, too.

We see from Asa what can happen from that drifting away. We become vulnerable to all of Satan’s attacks and our own desires. We become an easy target for one of Satan’s favorite assaults: fear.

If we’re not seeking God in all we do, we start thinking we don’t need to. After all, we’re doing just fine on our own.

But then when something scary comes around, we still want to try things our way. So we turn to other people.

I easily fall into this trap. I seek traveling companions so I don’t have to be nervous to go on a long trip alone. I feel more confident in a new or challenging situation if a friend will be there with me. I seek safety in numbers, confidence in medical professionals for healing, my own intelligence and security measures for physical protection.

None of these things are wrong in themselves. God gives us companions to help us, doctors for physical aid, and skills and wits to take smart precautions. But if we’re seeking anything other than Him first, if we’re relying on those people and things to save us from harm—to silence our fears—then we’re in trouble.

And that’s just my problem. It’s the problem for many of us. We rely on security systems and the like so we don’t have to fear.

But God is the only one worthy of my trust. He is the only one I need. He is the one I should rely on in every situation. God, not a person or my own abilities, is the only reason I don’t have to fear anything. God alone can control what happens to me. And He does control that, every day, whether I acknowledge Him or not.

In His wisdom, God sometimes gives us what we want, letting us follow Satan’s lies and our fallen desires.

God let Asa’s plan of reliance on another earthly king work. The king of Syria saved Judah from Baasha.

God often lets my plans of reliance on other people work, too. I do have less fear when I’m with others in dicey situations, and we emerge unscathed.

When it works, this following fear thing becomes addictive. It can become the pattern of your life if it’s uninterrupted.

For Asa, God sent another prophet to interrupt the cycle. This prophet pointed out Asa’s sin in relying on man instead of God and told Asa about the severe consequences he would incur as a result.

Instead of heeding this warning and reversing the pattern of following fear, Asa added to his sins by imprisoning the prophet. He spiraled rapidly downward, abusing some of his subjects and continuing in a pattern of fear and relying on anyone but God.

Even when he was stricken with disease, he relied on people to heal him instead of God. Once he’d decided to let fear and lies dictate his life, there was no going back for him.

But you and I don’t have to continue in that pattern. God interrupts our cycle of fear with His Word. We have the example of Asa and many others to warn us what not to do and show us the path to peace and freedom from fear.

But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded. – 2 Chronicles 15:7

Do you want to have courage instead of fear? The key is simple: Seek God with all your heart.

And the good news is, if you ask Him, God will help you do that. Seek Him, rely on Him, and fear will become the memory you’ll forget.

Do you tend to rely on others instead of God? How has God helped you stop the pattern of fear in your life? Please share!

Photos by Bernard Hermant, Agung Pratamah, Aaron Burden, and Marc-Olivier Jodoin on Unsplash. Original graphics designed by Jerusha Agen.