They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. (Mark 16:8)

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting over 40 million adults every year. In fact, most people, if not all, have dealt with some sort of acute anxiety or fear before. Fear is crippling.

In Mark’s account, fear kept the women from telling anyone Jesus had risen. In some earlier manuscripts, the gospel ends there. Imagine if the gospel had actually ended there and Jesus’ name and love was never spread to the nations and across generations.

Luckily, God is bigger than fear. God is bigger than anxiety. God is bigger than any trouble we may have in this world. When Jesus defeated death and resurrected again, he did so to break the chains of fear and punishment in our lives. 1 John 4:8 declares “God is love” and 1 John 4:18 says “There is no fear in love.” Therefore, there is no fear in God. We must not let the Enemy use fear and anxiety to keep us from the fullness of God’s plan in our lives. When the Lord commands us to go and tell the nations of his love, we know he is going ahead of us. By his strength and his power, through the peace of the Holy Spirit, are we able to defeat fear and live a life of peace.

Pray the abounding peace of God over fears in your life.

Ethan Zent is a fourth-year student at Kingswood University studying worship arts, with a strong desire to share God’s love through song and word.

© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.