If only there were someone to mediate between us, someone to bring us together, someone to remove God’s rod from me, so that his terror would frighten me no more.  Then I would speak up without fear of him, but as it now stands with me, I cannot. (Job 9:35)

A little more than a week ago, I was with my six year old daughter.  We were on the way to get an MRI done, as part of her quarterly scans, in accordance with her cancer remission protocol.  (We are happily celebrating almost two years post-treatment!)  In my mind, they are a formality because we know the Lord has completely healed her, but we have to keep an eye out.  

Even after so long, she still fears these scans.  Well, not the scans, but the ‘pokes.’ They’ve got to keep an eye on her blood work and she has to get an IV put in, so I have to hold her down when they put in the needle.

As we drove to the hospital, she told me how her fear feels.  She said the fear of the pain fills her mind and makes her head grow big, like a balloon.  Only when she starts thinking about good things does her head get smaller.  She wisely said that the pain she fears feels so much bigger than it really is.

Fear fools us into thinking it is bigger than it is.  It convinces us we can do nothing and that we are all alone in this.  It darkens our minds and fills our senses.  It overtakes us until we think there is no hope.  But fear doesn’t want you to know its secret because it is a big one.  Its power to overwhelm you hinges one thing and fear would do anything to keep you from finding it out.

Fear has limits. 

God does not.

In our verse today, Job nearly wishes for a mediator to stand in the gap for him.  He wants someone to help him understand, to get past this horrible experience.  He pledges his loyalty if such a person existed.  Back then, he could only look into the future and put his hope in what might be. 

We don’t have to wait or wish.  We have Someone who knows our pain, our limits and has gone so far beyond them, we can trust Him with our very lives.  That is Jesus Christ.  He stands in the gap to show us the limits of fear – because fear is a created thing.  Fear can only go so far because it doesn’t exist in its own power.  Just like my daughter discovered, when we turn our eyes to Jesus, He shows us how miraculous His power is because He is the Creator.

When we invite Jesus into our circumstances, we can experience His limitless love, power, strength, peace, mercy and grace.  Nothing can stand against them because they are not limited by the physical world.  Like the Apostle Paul said, “Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:23) 

God and His character are not limited by the laws of the natural.  Fear is because it can only grow when we give it room.  When we deprive fear of the air of our thoughts, it can’t expand.  Fixing our minds on the things of God deflates the power of fear, just like taking the air out of a balloon. 

Like my daughter discovered – and Job came to realize – there is a power more infinite than fear.  That is the power of Christ living in us.  Now that we know the secret, we are no longer slaves to fear!

If you embraced the limitless of Our God, what fear would you be freed from?

Holy God – Thank You for the sacrifice of Your Son.  Thank you for Your infinite wisdom and mercy, that allows me to live in the space of Your love.  When fear overwhelms me, help me to remember its limits.  Help me to focus on how nothing is impossible for you, when I put my trust in Jesus.  In His Name I pray, Amen.

Further Reading: 1 Kings 8:27, Psalm 145:3, Romans 11:33-36