For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”

Isaiah 41:13

Reason #2: Fear not, for I am the one who helps you.

Not only does God want His people to know that He is with them; He also wants them to know that He is for them. He is holding them by the hand — which has to be one of the most comforting images in the entire Bible. He says, “I am the one who helps you.”

We all need help from time to time. “Help” is what we cry out when we are in danger, when we need assistance. We even have this phrase: “lend a helping hand.” Throughout the Scriptures, God says that He is the “helping” God; He is the God who “lends a helping hand” to His people.

There are two references to God’s hands here in this section of Isaiah — and both of them come with God’s promise to help His people. He says, I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. God’s right hand is His hand of victory; it is His hand of strength. We might picture this as the “arm of the Lord” we spoke of a few weeks ago — the arm of God as the Mighty Warrior. But here God says, I hold your right hand. We’re back to the balanced view of God we’ve been talking about — this is the Gentle Shepherd holding the hand of His people through any adversity.

God is right there to lend a helping hand to His people, no matter our circumstances. Listen to the verses just before this one:

Those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish. You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all.

Isaiah 41:11-12

God says those who contend against you — your enemies — shall be as nothing at all. The literal translation of this verse refers to “the men of your lawsuit,” meaning “those who plead against you.” But God stands in to defend us — picture a defense attorney advocating for the defendant. This is a picture of our God.

When God says, “Fear not,” He’s not telling us it’s a sin to be afraid. That’s not it at all. Life is full of fear-inducing circumstances. Fear in and of itself is not sinful. Healthy fear prompts us to lock our doors at night and wear a seatbelt while driving. Rather, God is reminding us not to give in to our fears, not to be controlled by our fears. Instead of being controlled by fear, we are to be controlled by the Spirit. We are controlled by faith, hope, and love, not fear. Based on the number of Fear not statements we find throughout the Scriptures, it seems pretty obvious that God wants to help us become people of fearless trust.

And this is the ultimate point: God wants us to trust Him with our fears. He wants us to let Him help us with our fears. Fearless trust means there’s nothing I won’t entrust to Him. It means I won’t hold on to those fears; I won’t be miserly with those fears, hoarding them to myself. No, the way of faith is to entrust those fears to the Lord — to give them over to Him, to let Him help.

Do you need the help of God? Is there any problem beyond His ability to help? He promises to help us by the strength of His own hand; therefore, we need not be afraid.

Reason #2: Fear not, for I am the one who helps you.