You will not be afraid of pestilence that stalks in darkness

You will not be afraid of the terror by night,
Or of the arrow that flies by day;
Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness,
Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon. Psalm 91:5-6

Words that seem nearly impossible to believe for some people precede a list of four truly haunting fears: “YOU WILL NOT BE AFRAID OF…”.

These fear-inducing four include:

• Terror by night
• The arrow that flies by day
• Pestilence that stalks in darkness
• Destruction that lays waste at noon

For about the last two and a half years, the world’s population has been held hostage by the fear of pestilence that stalks in darkness. Coronavirus. Covid-19. SARS CoV-2. The atmosphere was almost electric with dread anticipation in early March 2020 as we counted down to the soon-to-be-imposed shutdown of schools, churches, restaurants, stores, even parks and public beaches. We learned to make masks. We stopped socializing. We hunkered down in our homes, some of us all alone.

I don’t need to remind you of the hopeless feeling that every death count posted on the news brought to the souls of the listeners. Every sniffle, throat tickle, or stuffy nose brought a sense of panic to many.

We’ve lived through the pestilence that stalks in darkness; we are told by our medical “experts” that there is more to come. My purpose here is to direct you to the Bible statement, “YOU WILL NOT BE AFRAID…”

Fear is tricky. It can be a helpful instructor/informant—”Remember how touching that hot stove burned you last time? Yeah, let’s not do that again.” Or “I have an uneasy feeling about that party…think I’ll do something else.”

But fear that rides you and prevails over your thought-life and emotions like an evil taskmaster? That’s from Hell. When your heart races whenever you cough—or hear someone else coughing—fear is driving you. The Lord says, “YOU WILL NOT BE AFRAID OF pestilence that stalks in darkness.”

“But so many have died!” you may argue. Yes, they have. But the truth is that there are millions of ways that people depart this life. This sickness is but one of those ways, yet you have life right NOW, and you need to live it.

How do you live without fear in the face of disease, epidemics, and pandemics?

Two things have helped me. First, I learned as much as I could about ways to stay healthy in light of covid, and I practiced those things. I learned what might harm me in my quest to stay well, and I abandoned that. Fortunately, piles of information about the current diseases floating around are relatively easy to be found, as well as methods to remain healthy. You just need to know where to look.

Second—and most important—know what the Word of God reveals about sickness and disease. Both the Old and New Testaments are loaded with supernatural healings and they both shed light on God’s healing nature. During the early shutdown, as I suffered alone from an unusually bad asthma attack (made worse, I’m sure, due to the drummed-up fear of covid), peace came, and soon, easier breathing when I repeated Scriptures concerning the breath of Life the Lord breathed into my lungs. (See John 20:22, “He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The Greek word for both breath and Spirit is “pneuma”, and I just repeated that to myself and thanked the Holy “Pneuma” for my “pneuma” flowing freely. Sounds funny, I know, but I was clinging to that “pneuma” from God…and was so glad to experience life-giving pneuma-air going into my lungs!)

A quick search online for healing Scriptures will provide you with enough ammunition to build your faith against the fear you might feel crawling up your neck or growing in the pit of your stomach. I am confident that in your search you will find one or two—or dozens—of verses that will ring true to your heart and will stir your hope and confidence. God’s power is stored inside those verses, and when united by your faith, they will produce peace, confidence, and ultimately, help and health.

I would be disobedient to God, though, if I didn’t mention the gorilla in the room—Death. I have found that the fear of death is a terrifying master, and unless that is conquered, you will never overcome the fear of sickness.

Hebrews 2:14-15 states, “Therefore, since the children [that’s you and me] share in flesh and blood, He Himself [that’s Jesus!] likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.“

Jesus died for us so we could live eternally. That means that when I die—whether by illness or injury or passing quietly in my sleep—I merely change locations! I’ll step out of my body at death and enter my new home, sort of like stepping out of clothes at the end of the day to enter my shower or bed. I never mourn stripping off those smelly clothes! I simply toss them in the clothes hamper. How much more will I be thrilled to step out of this body and enter into the new adventure ahead of me that was paid for in full by Jesus’ bold sacrificial death? Once the fear of death is tackled through your faith in Jesus and what He undertook for you, the fear of sickness becomes so much easier to overcome.

You will not be afraid of the pestilence that stalks in darkness. 

Dorothy