Cited in Practical Christianity, April-June 1972, pp 1-2, published by the Armed Forces’ Christian Union.
Two great forces in this world are most powerful. One is fear and the other is faith. Faith is stronger than fear.
This truth was brought home to me in a very real way during my short spell in Northern Ireland last year.
On 9 September, Captain David Stewardson, a bomb disposal officer in the RAOC, was blown to pieces while attempting to defuse an IRA bomb. He was the first officer to be killed in the current Northern Ireland troubles, and he was also the first person that I knew personally, to be killed. One was always reading in the papers, and hearing over the broadcasting media, that soldiers were being killed by snipers and explosions, but I found my reactions to these events completely different to that of David’s death.
For one thing, David was a person to me, not just a name. For another thing we were all under a similar threat. The Army HQ where I worked had been threatened by the IRA and events at that time showed that the presence of civilian women and girls was not sufficient to deter the IRA from carrying out their threat if they could.
The night that David was killed, I went to sleep as usual, pushing the day’s events as far into the back of my mind as possible. However, in the early hours of the morning I woke up in a bit of a sweat and just could not control my fear or get back to sleep again. Fear just seemed to engulf me for a while, and I felt helplessly unable to get a grip of myself.
Then a tremendous thing happened. Praying for peace, I believe God brought to mind a verse in the Bible which I had for some time learned by heart earlier that year.
“Since we, God’s children, are human beings—made of flesh and blood—he became flesh and blood too by being born in human form; for only as a human being could he die and in dying break the power of the devil who had the power of death. Only in that way could he deliver those who through fear of death have been living all their lives as slaves to constant dread.” (Hebrews 2:14-15, Living Bible)
As I lay in bed and thought about this verse, I was able to thank God that His Son Jesus Christ has conquered death, the fear of death and the power of the devil to keep us living in that fear. I can honestly say that I then experienced a feeling of peace within. The fear that I had when I awoke was completely taken away. It was not long afterwards that I was able to get back to sleep. God had not promised that I would not be killed, but He had taken away the fear of death.
*Photo Credit: https://www.pexels.com/@shvets-production