Our Times Are In God’s Hand

We live in unsettling times, but it’s nothing new. No matter the circumstances, we can always find encouragement and strength in the promises of God.

In Psalm 31, David brought his distress before the Lord. He was surrounded by slander, terror, and plots to take his life. As troubling as his times were, he declared, “But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD, I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in Your hand; Deliver me from the hand of my enemies and from those who persecute me” (Psalms 31:14-15).

Throughout the Bible, we can see God’s people living under the oppression of wicked rulers who defied God. These officials were proud and believed everyone’s times were in their hands. But when God’s people entrusted their times in His hand instead, they received great deliverance.

We, too, can say to God, “My times are in your hand.” God’s compassionate and powerful hand is the best place to entrust our current circumstances. 

Fear vs. Faith

Whenever and wherever we allow fear to dominate our thoughts and hearts, we do not have faith – we are not putting our trust in God. However, when we entrust our troubles into His care, we have faith. 

Faith and fear can exist in our hearts concerning varying issues in our lives. Someone may have great faith (trust) in God for finances but have fear in the area of health. We all have room to grow in our spiritual walk. Each time we take our fear to God and allow Him to teach us to trust Him in that area of life, we have victory (1 John 5:4).

When we recognize fear in our heart, we need to realize that fear is the enemy of faith. Fear is faith in reverse – believing the circumstances are greater than the power of God. 

Satan delights in trapping us in fear. He is the great deceiver and knows that FEAR is merely False Evidence Appearing Real. And he sure knows how to make those lies appear to be true, doesn’t he?

God’s Deliverance from Fear

But when we cry out to God and seek Him in His Word, He will enlighten our spiritual eyes so we can know the truth in any situation and be set free. Faith always comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17) and never by the words of the media.

God loves His children fiercely. When His kids are in fear, instead of succumbing to the dire circumstances, they can choose to cry out to God in faith. He will answer with the ferocity of a mother bear coming to the rescue of her endangered cub.

We can see this illustrated beautifully in Psalm 18. King Saul and his army were searching for David to kill him. In verses 4-6, David cried out to God, “The ropes of death are wrapped around me, and floods of ungodly men terrify me! Help!”

The cry of this little “cub” reached the ears of the Big Mother Bear, who became enraged.

7  Then the earth quaked and trembled.    

The foundations of the mountains shook;    

they quaked because of his anger.

8  Smoke poured from his nostrils;    

fierce flames leaped from his mouth.    

Glowing coals blazed forth from him.

9  He opened the heavens and came down;    

dark storm clouds were beneath his feet.

10  Mounted on a mighty angelic being, he flew,    

soaring on the wings of the wind.

11  He shrouded himself in darkness,    

veiling his approach with dark rain clouds.

12  Thick clouds shielded the brightness around him    

and rained down hail and burning coals.

13  The LORD thundered from heaven;    

the voice of the Most High resounded    

amid the hail and burning coals.

14  He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies;    

his lightning flashed, and they were greatly confused.

15  Then at your command, O LORD,    

at the blast of your breath, the bottom of the sea could be seen,    

and the foundations of the earth were laid bare.

16  He reached down from heaven and rescued me;    

he drew me out of deep waters.

17  He rescued me from my powerful enemies,    

from those who hated me and were too strong for me.

18  They attacked me at a moment when I was in distress,    

but the LORD supported me.

19  He led me to a place of safety;    

he rescued me because he delights in me. (Psalms 18:7-19 NLT)

If you’re a parent and have experienced your primal instincts kick in when your child was in danger, you can relate! What wouldn’t you do to rescue your child and bring him to safety? 

Are you a better parent than God? Surely not. How could we ever believe that God wouldn’t want to help us when we’re in distress? 

When we take our fears to the Word of God and allow His truth to set us free from fear’s entrapment, He will surely come to protect His own. If we don’t see His answer immediately, we need to persist in soaking our Bible pages with tears. We need to keep seeking Him in His Word until every ounce of deadly fear is replaced with quickening faith.

Fortified by Faith

When we take our fears to God and learn to trust in Him in any given circumstance wholly, He will surely deliver us. We need to persist in building our faith in His promises and not give up. We need to keep soaking those Bible pages until we have the victory – our faith in God. 

The moment we trust God, fear dissolves, and that is when we receive the victory. We may not see the victory immediately, but it is ours at that moment when faith usurps fear in our heart. We know our Father has heard us and can joyfully praise Him for His answer – even before we see it. We believe His Word – things unseen – and then we see His mighty rescue.

Growing in Faith

Taking our fears to God’s Word is how we grow in faith – in our trust in God. We entrust our times in His hand, one step at a time. We take one fear at a time to him for obliteration. We find our tiny mustard seed of faith in His Word, which ignites the fuse for fear’s annihilation. 

Once God delivers us from one fear, we find faith’s fortification for that area in our life. We become stronger in that circumstance. And then another fear rears its ugly head, and we go to battle with His Word – the sword of the spirit – again. 

Placing Our Times in His Hand

We always have a choice. Will we allow wicked, ungodly people to paralyze us in fear as if our times are in their hands? Or will we instead choose to trust our times in God’s hand?

Will we choose fear and defeat or faith and victory? Will we choose the terror of men or the fierce terror of God thundering from heaven to our rescue?

We decide – always. And we will receive what we believe, whether it is through faith or fear. Faith awaits us in the Scriptures, yearning to speak God’s word of life, truth, and victory to our hearts.

We can open God’s pages of promises and allow Him to rescue us from the fears of our times.