Why Should I Fear the Darkest Hour?

In these anxious days people are looking everywhere for hope. They are looking everywhere for encouragement. A couple of weeks ago a video made its way to various social media platforms that featured multiple celebrities singing John Lennon’s Imagine. The post was meant to be an encouragement, a song of hope, as we all battle the Coronavirus together. Without taking the time to work through all the various problems with the song, it is safe to say that Imagine is actually quite hopeless. It is a song, at its core, about imagining and dreaming about an alternate reality. One that will never be true. How hopeless we would be if we were just left to our imaginations and our dreams! 

Thankfully, the Christian has a hope that is grounded in an unchanging God. In days of distress and anxiety we don’t have to imagine better circumstances, we can confidently look to Christ. Nearly 200 years before Lennon released his hopeless song, John Newton and William Cowper’s Olney Hymns were published (1779). In the third book of this hymnal there is a section of hymns under the heading Comfort. In the past couple of weeks, I have found the hymn titled Jesus My All to be especially encouraging. Maybe you are like me and you find that lately your mind is prone to wander into imaginations and dreams. If so, then these words serve to bring us back to the only real hope that we have, Christ alone!

Why should I fear the darkest hour,
Or tremble at the tempter’s power?
Jesus vouchsafes to be my tower.

“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs to it and is safe.” (Proverbs 18:10) In Christ we find a shelter to guard us against the darkest of days. We need not fear because “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39) If we are to fear and tremble, let it be in awe and wonder before the Lord of hosts who is with us and who is our fortress. (Psalm 46:7, 11)

Though hot the fight, why quit the field?
Why must I either flee or yield,
Since Jesus is my mighty shield?

I find this verse so encouraging. Since Jesus is our shield, we don’t have to run away or give up. We don’t have to quit. Though our activity may look quite different right now than it did a month ago, we need to be on guard against retreating from everything and everyone. I know I am tempted to retreat. Virtual meetings can be awkward and difficult. Connections drop, video lags, there are awkward silences, odd camera angles, and difficulties with lighting (and there are plenty of parodies and memes online right now to highlight these). God, however, has created the church to be a body, even in these strange times. We need each other (even virtually). We can’t just flee or yield during this time. We must continue to do the good works that we were created to do. We must continue to fulfill the “one another” commands in Scripture to the best of our limited ability. The heat of this current fight is one of isolation. Instead of retreat let us be diligent to press in to the good digital gifts God has given us to stay connected. 

When creature comforts fade and die,
Worldlings may weep, but why should I?
Jesus still lives, and still is nigh.

Though all the flocks and herds were dead,
My soul a famine need not dread,
For Jesus is my living bread.

I know not what may soon betide,
Or how my wants shall be supplied;
But Jesus knows, and will provide.

These three verses are a wonderful reminder of the truths found in Matthew 6:25-34. The current pandemic brings with it all kinds of anxieties about “creature comforts,” “famine,” and “wants.” The truths from Matthew 6 and this hymn are as true for us today as they were for the audiences they were written to. Seek first the Kingdom of God and God will provide everything that his people need. That provision may look drastically different than the provision that we imagine, but His provision is far better. Jesus is the bread of life; He is the bread that came to us from heaven. When we eat this bread, we will live forever. No pandemic can change this truth and no physical bread can meet the eternal need that Jesus meets.

Though sin would fill me with distress,
The throne of grace I dare address,
For Jesus is my righteousness.

Though faint my prayers and cold my love,
My steadfast hope shall not remove,
While Jesus intercedes above.

Jesus is our righteousness. (Romans 5:18-21; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Though we can sin with our worrying and with our anxious hearts, we can still come boldly before God because Christ is there to intercede for us. So, let us hold fast to our confession and find our hope in Christ. (Hebrews 4:14-16; 7:25)

Against me earth and hell combine;
But on my side is power divine;
Jesus is all, and He is mine!

This hymn and the truths from Scripture that it contains are our reality. We don’t have to imagine or dream about a fantasy world that will never exist. We have God’s word and his unchangeable character that forever connects us to our great God and Savior, Jesus, our steadfast anchor who has gone before us as our forerunner and because of him we can “hold fast to the hope set before us.” (Hebrews 6:17-20)