Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Most human beings know what fear is; if you don't, it's not "normal." The world is reeling with it today. What Luke says (21:25, 26) is so true right now: "On the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, ... men's hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth."
You can't escape this anxiety unless you live on the planet Mars. But you can escape the fear by observing the Sabbath, a day free from fear. It's a day of heaven come down to earth. God's presence is in the Sabbath day. He Himself set it apart, sanctified it, and blessed it. In the Sabbath you draw nearer, Sabbath after Sabbath, to Him. Because His presence is in the Sabbath, your heart becomes filled with peace and the fear is expelled.
You may say, "That's only for one day; as soon as the sun goes down at the end of the Sabbath, here comes all the fear again as we hear the daily news!"
No, that's not true; the peace of the Sabbath calms you and remains with you by faith as you go through the new week, until the next Sabbath. The commandment says, "Remember the Sabbath day ..." You start remembering the next Sabbath as soon as the sun goes down Sabbath evening. And because of the joy of Sabbath-keeping you can sing, "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God" (Psalm 46:2-4).
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: November 16, 1997.
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