If we\u2019ve learned anything from the Christmas story so far, it\u2019s this –God must know we humans can be skittish aka jumpy aka nervous. Three scenes in and we\u2019re already batting three for three on angelic fear warnings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary? \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d
Joseph? \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d
Shepherds? \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d
(Translation: Breathe. Heaven is speaking.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those four little words pack quite a punch. And while I\u2019m all about faith and trust, I won\u2019t pretend fear isn\u2019t a real visitor. It shows up with bills, medical reports, repairs, family tensions, and those moments when the bottom drops out and we wonder how we\u2019ll stand back up. Fear is no quick-fix situation — it\u2019s a loud talker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So where do we even begin when fear turns up the volume?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christmas shines a spotlight on the answer — not the Christmas carols and cocoa, but the deeper truth underneath it all. In the middle of human messiness, God keeps showing up with the same holy refrain: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No wonder it appears in scripture over 100 times. God must delight in turning fearful moments into sacred ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Think of Mary — wide-eyed and wondering. Joseph — torn between logic and love. Shepherds — scared witless by radiant skies. And to each of them, God says, \u201cDo not fear,\u201d not as a suggestion but a divine command — because what He is doing is greater than what they are fearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And He\u2019s still saying it to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The same God who steadied Mary —
The same God who reassured Joseph —
The same God who lit up the night for shepherds —
is whispering to us today — \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why? Because perfect love still casts out fear.
Because His presence still overrides panic.
Because His joy still breaks into dark places.
Because His plan — yes, even in the 21st century — still holds firm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let’s picture God placing His Son in our arms, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and saying —
\u201cDon\u2019t be afraid of anything — ever.
I give you peace.
I give you hope.
I give you comfort.
I give you GOOD NEWS of GREAT JOY.
I give you JESUS.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGod is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore\u2026 we will not fear.\u201d (Psalm 46:1\u20132)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
#donotfear #dontbeafraid #GoodNews #GreatJoy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If we\u2019ve learned anything from the Christmas story so far, it\u2019s this –God must know we humans can be skittish aka jumpy aka nervous. Three scenes in and we\u2019re already batting three for three on angelic fear warnings. Mary? \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201dJoseph? \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201dShepherds? \u201cDo not be afraid.\u201d(Translation: Breathe. Heaven is speaking.)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23436,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4154,1769,537,4242,1158,267,33002,40,540,33003,132,542,33004,14910,2965,544,13588,545],"class_list":["post-23434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-breathe","tag-christian","tag-christmas-story","tag-do-not-be-afraid","tag-do-not-fear","tag-faith","tag-heaven-is-speaking","tag-inspiration","tag-joseph","tag-logic","tag-love","tag-mary","tag-peacee","tag-perfect-love","tag-plan","tag-shepherds","tag-theme","tag-trust"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23442,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23434\/revisions\/23442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}