Day 57: Deuteronomy 19, 20 and 21

Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his brothers will not become disheartened too. (Deuteronomy 20:8)

Have you ever been spooked by a rumor? Most of the things we worry about never happen, and of those that do, almost none end up being as bad as we feared.

In Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inaugural address, as the nation was sinking into the Great Depression, he uttered these words: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Those words have been repeated over and over, because of their profundity and for the comfort and assurance they afford.

Fear is contagious. Israel’s leadership didn’t want fear infecting the ranks of its volunteer army, so anxiety was a legitimate reason for being sent home. Better to lose one fearful soul than have panic spread to everyone else.

Fear can derail not only a nation’s (or an army’s) forward momentum; it can do the same to a church. So can negativity – one of fear’s byproducts. That’s why it’s so important to speak positively. A careless word can do a lot of damage.

For he has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). That means fear doesn’t get to tell us what to do. May our words, and the attitudes from which they are spawned, always move us forward and never hold us back.

Are your words an encouragement to those around you?