Having Faith In The Presence of Fear

Scripture: 2 Chronicles 20:1-24 (ESV)

The Story of Fear

Jehoshaphat gets news that stops him cold: three combined armies too large to fight are coming for him, and he has no way to stop them. The text says plainly that he “was afraid” (v. 3).

That was me a few years ago. Having gone through multiple rounds of testing, I was now waiting on PET scan results for a potential cancer diagnosis, my mind running worst-case scenarios I couldn’t control. I didn’t expect to be in that fight. It came looking for me the way it came looking for Jehoshaphat.

But notice what fear did in Jehoshaphat. Instead of sending him running from God into the depths of despair and worry, it sent him running to God. He “set his face to seek the Lord” (v. 3). When I found myself there in that paralyzing time of fear, in the waiting room of not-knowing, Psalm 46:10 kept coming to mind: “Be still and know that I am God.”

Naming the Truth Before God

Jehoshaphat’s prayer doesn’t perform bravery he doesn’t feel. He tells God exactly where he stands, powerless against what’s coming, uncertain what to do, and then says the thing that changes everything: his eyes are on God (v. 12).

I prayed a version of that prayer about my own body, my own scans, my own fear. God, I am terrified. I keep going to the worst possible outcome. I can’t see my way through the fear. But give me faith to believe that You are always good and always faithful, so that I can be still and know that You are God. That’s not weak faith; that’s the most honest kind there is. My fear was real and I wasn’t sure I had the ability to trust the way I needed to.

The Word That Changes Everything

God’s answer through Jahaziel: don’t be afraid because of what’s coming, “for the battle is not yours but God’s” (v. 15).

That potential diagnosis, whether treatment, bad outcome, or a rough road ahead was never meant to be carried alone. I knew the battle was not mine and I was to stand firm (v. 17), which for me looked like showing up to appointments, telling the people who love me, engaging my church community in prayer, and letting myself be held by something bigger than the fear. The “know that I am God” part of Psalm 46:10 began to sink in and the realization of who God is and the fact that the Creator and Redeemer of all, the great I AM was there with me had me repeating Isaiah and Davids words “what did I have to fear?” (Isaiah 44:6-8; Psalm 56:3-4)

Worship Before the Victory

This is the part that undoes me every time: the singers walked out ahead of the army, praising God before they knew how the battle would end (v. 21-22). Not after the good report. Before it.

I believed God could intervene, and I was still before Him, knowing He is faithful and always good before I had a single result in hand. I knew that even if the result was not what I wanted, it would be in His control and He would walk through it with me (Psalm 23:4). That’s a really hard thing to do in a season of uncertainty, but it’s also a freeing one. Worship in the waiting room isn’t denial; it’s defiance against fear having the final word.

The Testimony

The tests came back negative. I want to be honest about what that moment held, because it wasn’t simply relief replacing fear; it was both, together, the whole time. The negative test doesn’t erase the fear I felt, and that’s okay. I was genuinely afraid, and genuinely faithful, at the same time, and those aren’t contradictions. The fear didn’t mean I didn’t trust God enough. It meant I was human, walking through something real, with my eyes on Him anyway.

Like Jehoshaphat and Judah, I got to stand still before the outcome and then watch God be faithful, not just believing it afterward but trusting it beforehand and having it proven true. I had many in my believer community say it as well, but my fear was still real.

Don’t Let Fear Overcome You

This passage offers a better pattern for overcoming fear than gritting your teeth harder and trying to run from the battle:

Run to the Father and admit your fear (Psalm 62:8)
Ask for His help; He will give you the strength to trust (Psalm 46:1)
Listen for the word that steadies you from the Holy Spirit (Psalm 86:6-7)
Worship before you see the outcome. Praise isn’t just the celebration after the win; it should be the posture that walks you into the fight. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)
Let the fear and the faith coexist. Be faithful to praise, pray, stand firm in the promises in the Word even in the midst of your fear (Psalm 27:13-14)

In the Bible, overcoming never looks like self-reliance. It looks like Jehoshaphat: honest, afraid, seeking, and obedient. When the news came, he didn’t run in fear; he called the people together (v. 4). He gathered them to pray, to praise, and to quote God’s word; Jahaziel’s word from the Lord was spoken aloud to the whole assembly, and Jehoshaphat and the people took hold of it together, repeating back to themselves what God had promised.

Let your fear spur you to call God’s people in, pray out loud together, praise before the answer comes, and speak God’s word over the situation until it’s the loudest voice in the room.