I think every Christian remembers the first time they read through the book of Revelation. It typically comes with an overwhelming feeling of “What on earth did I just read?”
If I’m being perfectly honest, I actually avoided studying Revelation for years because of how fearfully people approached it. All my life I’ve had people use end times scripture to try to instill fear in me, giving a sort of constantly looking over your shoulder jumping at every sound approach to life. It feels awful and since I have a habit of avoiding things that feel awful I would just avoid it all together.
It wasn’t until adulthood and I decided to buckle down and get over my unease that I was able to see Revelation in a whole new light. And it’s not a book of terror designed to keep you jumping at every little spiritual thing and looking over your shoulder. What the book of Revelation actually is is encouragement.
I once went indoor rockclimbing with some dear friends. I’d never been before and, being way more knowledgeable, my friends took the time to teach me me how to do everything properly.
Now I have what you might call, not a fear of heights, but a fear of falling off of them. I can stand at a high observation deck with no problem. But I can’t climb trees without feeling my gut clench. So rock climbing provided an interesting dilemma in that I knew the harness had me safe, but I still had a faint twisting in my gut because I didn’t know what to expect if I fell.
All at once, my foot slipped near to the top, I completely lost my grip, and in an instant fell from the wall. Just as quickly, my friend tightened her grip on the line and caught me. I scrambled back to a stable grip and realized not only that I was ok, but that I was nowhere near as nervous as I’d been to climb just a moment before. Why? Because the unknown was gone. I spent the rest of our time on the wall with so much more ease than I’d started with, all because of that glimpse of what could go wrong and how we would handle it.
That’s what the book of Revelation does for us. It’s a reminder from God that people have done horrible things throughout all of history and they will do many more horrible things before all is said and done. It’s a reminder that no matter how bad things get, He has already overcome the world. The story will end in goodness and glory.
Our God is not a god who loses, and Revelation is the great cymbal clash in a symphony of his glory. We read Revelation to remember that. Soberly maybe, but not because we are meant to be afraid of what is coming. We are secure in our spiritual harness.
If the book of Revelation is being used to brow beat you into living in fear of the world around you it is being used wrong. Full stop. Scripture is being misused. Scripture is not meant to bring others to live in fear. Our God is not a fearful God, so why would his word refute that? Revelation is not for fear.
We read the book of Revelation to remind ourselves to take heart. God has overcome the wrongness of the world. There is a plan. There is a way forward. We will make it.
Will there be fear? Yep! Are we meant to be held prisoner by that fear? Nope. Our God is not a god of fear, but is God over fear. We can live in confidence even if we are afraid. We can trust the line keeping us safe on the climbing wall.
He’s got us, and that’s a pretty encouraging thought.
Let’s find some joy,
-A
Avalon Robinson Author 