Running Scared

Fear, Worry, and the God of Rest

Edward T. Welch

New Growth Press

www.newgrowthpress.com

© 2007 by Edward T. Welch

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—except for brief quotations for the purpose of review or comment, without the prior permission of the publisher, New Growth Press, P.O. Box 9805, Greensboro, NC 27429-0805.

Requests for information should be addressed to: New Growth Press, P.O. Box 9805, Greensboro, NC 27429-0805.

Scripture quotations are from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Cover Design: The DesignWorks Group, Nate Salciccioli and Jeff Miller, www.thedesignworksgroup.com

ISBN—10: 0-9785567-5-5

ISBN—13: 978-0-9785567-5-4

Religion/ Christian Life/ Practical Life/ Spiritual Growth

To J. Alan Groves

A wise pastor

A loving father

My dear friend

(1952—2007)

Preface

I have looked forward to writing about fear for years. I came close to it in When People Are Big and God Is Small, but all I could do was skirt the edges and savor the possibilities. I touched on it in Depression: A Stubborn Darkness, but since fear is not relevant to everyone who struggles with depression, all I did was raise a signpost and mention that there are beautiful words of comfort up ahead for fearful people.

Now I can graze on those beautiful words.

Like most writing projects, this book is aimed squarely at myself. Although I can be angry or melancholy, I am a fear specialist. In this I have found that I am not alone. Not everyone is a fear specialist, but there is no doubt that every single person who ever lived is personally familiar with fear. It is an inescapable feature of earthly life. To deny it is…well…to deny it.

I was initially intrigued by Luke’s account of Jesus’ command: “Do not worry.” There was a time when the biblical commands “Do not worry” and “Do not be afraid” put a quick end to hopes that there was anything attractive to say to fearful people. It seemed as if the biblical counsel was “The law says don’t fear, so don’t. End of story.” But there are at least two different ways to say “Don’t worry.” one is a judicial warning, which has a threatening overtone; the other is a parental encouragement, which aims to comfort. Scripture has both, but Luke placed the accent on parental encouragement. Those warm words from the loving Father were all I needed to notice God’s passion for comforting fearful people.

Of course, Scripture took me to new places. I didn’t anticipate being taught how to pray or how being an active peacemaker is a sure-fire way to know peace. I also didn’t anticipate how the reading, writing, and arithmetic of the Christian life—Bible reading, prayer, and fellowship—would be the rudiments for our battle ...