“Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me.”
Psalms 23:4 NLT
http://bible.us/116/psa.23.4.nlt
I recently went and saw the movie “IT“. Not once, but twice. Now I’m not a horror movie type of person. I typically stay away from them. I used to watch them as a kid and be scared half to death. As an adult and a Christian, I’ve had the stigma of them being just evil and demonic and it made me more holy because I didn’t watch them. Also, the writers probably had a devil in them. Now in some cases that may be true, but not in all of them. We all have our demons to deal with. Yours and mine are no better than anyone else’s. It’s how we handle them that’s important.
That leads me to the point of this article. SPOILER ALERT if you haven’t seen the movie. I’m not telling all of the movie, but I’m going to explain some of the significance of the film. The plot of the movie is a group of kids in a small town called Darry find themselves facing an evil force that is abducting and murdering the children of the town. No one can figure out what is happening to these children until one little boy named Georgie is murdered. His older brother Billy is so torn up by his death that he does his own research and figures out that Georgie could possibly still be alive and was washed away into a well in the sewers.
Billy and his friends come together and begin to go on a search as they realize they have a common enemy. An evil clown by the name of Pennywise. Pennywise is not a person who life took some bad turns and decided to terrorize the town. He is a form of evil. He is the embodiment of fear itself.
He attacks each child differently. He uses their biggest fear against them to eventually kill them. Pennywise is driven by his hatred for the children and their fear. One thing I noticed throughout the movie was he never captured anyone right away for the most part. Even in the pursuit of chasing them he never catches them most of the time. The thought that hit me is that the strength of fear is not capturing you but keeping you afraid.
Pennywise is driven or energized even by the fears of these children. It is where he gains his strength. The Bible says in Nehemiah 8:10 that the joy of the Lord is our strength. The joy we get from knowing Christ is what strengthens us for the fight ahead. We thrive off of our relationship with Christ. Which even further confirms when Paul writes from the walls of a prison to “Rejoice in the Lord and again I say rejoice!” He pens these words from a dark place to provide encouragement to the body of Christ. He’s in a dark place, but he knows who his source and where his hope lies. So regardless of his circumstance he is able to be strengthened by his joy in Christ.
Secondly, these kids are stronger together. Pennywise tries to draw them away from the group and take them out one by one. Their strength is not only in overcoming their fear in their own mind, but having a community of people to support them and they help each other overcome their fears together. The Bible says in Hebrews 10 that we are not to forsake coming together and to encourage each other now that the day of Christ’s return is approaching.
Just as the children in this movie realized we ought to come to the same realization. We are not in this battle alone. No matter what your struggle is. No matter what you feel your vice is or what is holding you back. You are not alone. God will never leave you or forsake you and he gave you a family in the body of Christ to support you and overcome whatever that thing is.
As I pointed out Pennywise never really captured anyone, he thrived off the chase and instilling fear in his victims. Fear’s power is not in devouring you. Fear desires to keep you afraid. The devil knows if you just stay afraid you will be stagnant and you won’t take the steps of faith to fulfill the awesome plan God has for you. Fear constantly keeps you in a state of fearing what can happen if you take that step into something unfamiliar. There is a place God wants to take you to, but you have to step out the boat. Even if you start to sink Jesus is there to pull you up.
Lastly, your boat is a temporary place. It’s a mode of transportation to get you from one place to another. It has a purpose, but if it’s keeping you from God’s plan, it’s a comfort zone that is only breeding complacency in you. Don’t allow any clowns trick you with a boat only to devour you. Be bold and don’t let IT (fear) have you. You have the real IT (Holy SpirIT) on the inside of you and Christ has given you the victory through what He did for you and me on Calvary. Until next time…
Peace and blessings
