Words for the Anxious Heart

These are not people who simply need to be told to stop worrying. They need a reason to believe they can keep going.
And Isaiah gives them one.

He paints an entirely different picture. A wilderness blossoming. Water gushing in the desert. Thirsty ground bubbling with springs. The land that once seemed barren will be filled with life.

God confronts their fear with a promise.
Behold, your God. He will come and save them.
The God who comes to save His people is also the God who will judge evil and make things right. Their hope is not found in the strength of their hands or the steadiness of their knees.

Their hope is in the God who is coming.

Isaiah 35 continues with the promise that blind eyes will be opened, deaf ears unstopped, and the lame will leap.

Centuries later, when John the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus if He was the One who was to come, Jesus pointed to what they could see and hear. The blind received sight, the lame walked, and the deaf heard (Matthew 11:4–5).

These were the very signs of restoration Isaiah had described. God’s promised salvation was being revealed through Jesus Christ.

Jesus was born. He died, was buried, and rose again. And He will come again.

We still live in a world where hands grow weak, knees tremble, and hearts become anxious. But we have the promise of His return, the resurrection, and the new creation, when God’s work of restoration will be complete.

I recognize something of myself in Isaiah’s description. My anxious heart finds plenty of worries to keep me awake at 2 AM. My weak hands sometimes hesitate when there is work God has placed before me. My trembling knees remind me how easily fear can keep me from taking the next step.

I need God’s mercy, His strength, and His saving grace.

But there is something different about this Fear Not. God doesn’t simply offer words of comfort to anxious hearts. He tells His people to strengthen weak hands, steady feeble knees, and speak courage to those who are afraid.

I am not the only one with an anxious heart. There are others beside me who need His promises, too.

Sometimes strengthening someone means sitting beside them when they are discouraged. Sometimes it means helping carry a burden or praying with someone who is struggling. And sometimes it means reminding them of what God has promised.

But how can I encourage someone else when I have fears of my own?

Perhaps that is part of what Isaiah is teaching us. We don’t have to be free from every worry before we can remind someone of God’s faithfulness. We can speak His promises even when we need to hear them ourselves.

Perhaps today someone beside you needs to hear, “Fear not.” Perhaps tomorrow, you will need them to say it back to you. Together, we can remind one another where our hope is found.
Behold, your God.

FEAR NOT when your anxious heart loses courage.
BECAUSE GOD IS coming to save you.