There are many days when the Christian ends up in doubt and fear, in human terms sometimes rightly and sometimes wrongly, but always in real doubt and fear. That's part and parcel of living in this fallen world. Things happen which show us we are not in control, that we don't have the authority or the power to command smooth sailing, and that we don't know the future. There are a few ways we can deal with those fears. One is to deny they exist. Bad idea. Fear is ultimately an imperfection in our love and trust in God. It's not something to deny any more than any other way that we fail to love and trust our Lord. It's something to be confessed. Another way to deal with those fears is to put out some sort of feeler, expecting the Lord to show us with a sign, like he showed Gideon, that we have rightly perceived his will. This is also a bad idea. It mediates God's promises through a sign which he could perform but which other spiritual forces can perform as well and which we can easily misinterpret. This puts us in the driver's seat, rather than leaving our Lord there. The better plan for dealing with our fears is what we see happening in Acts 15. We confess that we are concerned about something. We share those concerns with wise believers. We trust the Lord to be able to govern things well and according to his mercy and grace. And we proceed with life, knowing that despite our doubt and fear we have a Lord who has conquered death, hell and the grave, and who also knows, understands, died for, and forgives our sin.
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