“Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:4 ESV)
Fear Not… Then Faith
I recently dreamt that I had to perform brain surgery on a friend. Dream circumstances conspired to make such surgery an absolute necessity, but my dream did not provide me with brain surgery skills. I knelt next to my brain-damaged friend with a scalpel in my hand and looked at the X on his forehead.
And I was afraid.
A lot of fear comes from our awareness that we have things we must do, that are outside of our ability. Probably not brain surgery, but we find ourselves in that situation frequently. And it brings us fear.
Even more afraid of brain surgery, I might be afraid of death… or my sins’ effects on everything… or my ability to overcome sin. I might not be facing an X with a scalpel, but death, sins’ effects, and sin itself are more beyond my control than I usually like to admit.
And that is where Habakkuk applies faith. We can not handle those things. But faith connects us to the One who not only can, but He has.
It takes humility to admit we can not do it… and faith is the path to humility. It takes trust to let Jesus repave the rocky road to death… and faith is the path to trust. It takes knowledge to understand how Jesus solves sin, sins’ effects, and death… and faith is the path to knowledge.
Fear not, then faith.