Followed By Mercy

Don't Be Afraid of the Shadows

W. Austin Gardner Season 2 Episode 30

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Shadows have a way of twisting reality. They make dangers look bigger than they are, and fears feel closer than they’ve ever been. The “valley of the shadow of death” isn’t just poetry. It’s the honest experience of walking through seasons so dark you can almost feel death breathing down your neck.


In this episode, we take a deep look at Psalm 23 and what it truly means to walk through the valley of shadows. The Hebrew concept of “shadow” encompasses more than just a hint of darkness. It’s a place of deep distress, overwhelming danger, and the very presence of death itself. No wonder fear takes hold. But in the middle of that terror, one truth stands unshaken: “You are with me.”


Notice the shift in David’s words. When he steps into the valley, he stops talking about his Shepherd and starts talking to Him. It’s a subtle, decisive move. David doesn’t deny the darkness. He decides not to face it alone. The path through your valley isn’t pretending the shadows aren’t there. It’s fixing your eyes on the Shepherd who walks with you through it all.


Maybe you’re up against illness, loss, broken relationships, or fear about what’s next. The shadows are real, but they’re not the whole story. Instead of letting your mind race with everything that could go wrong, redirect your thoughts to the One who stays beside you. God’s love doesn’t flicker in the dark. He loves you now as much as He ever has—and nothing in the valley can change that.


You don’t have to fear the shadows. Your Shepherd sees perfectly in the darkness and promises to walk with you every step, no matter how long the valley lasts. Rest in this: the shadow of death is real, but the presence of your Shepherd is even more real.


Join me as we learn to rest in God’s love and thank Him for His goodness even when the shadows linger. The valley may be dark, but you never walk it alone.

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Austin Gardner:

I want to talk to you about the shadow of death.

Austin Gardner:

You see, he says David says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. I'd just like to spend just a little bit of time with you. I know that often preachers will say, well, it's just a shadow, and they kind of trivialize it without meaning to, because they'll say, well, one famous preacher said well, would you rather get run over by a Mack truck or by the shadow of a Mack truck passing you? That kind of diminishes what's going on in your life right now, doesn't it? I know you're scared, I know you're terrified. Nothing's happened, but it's the threat that it might See. The shadow is real and it is terrifying. You could be very likely in real danger, but here's what you can know your shepherd is with you. I have no doubt that you're in real danger. I have no doubt that your life is messed up. I have no doubt that you're going through stuff, but it is the shadow of death. Yea, though, I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. So let's think about shadows just a moment today, this to meditate on it.

Austin Gardner:

All day long, as you go about your day, shadows distort objects and create shapes we can't understand or identify. You know they. You know that as a child, you watched it happen. You saw that it happened. You saw that it happened. You saw that it was going on. You saw the shadows. Shadows distort. They make things bigger than they are. They make things different than they are. You can take your hands and play games with children with shadows. Shadows symbolize danger or evil. We all know that from childhood stories or from movies that we watched. The blunt truth is we fear what we can't clearly see more than we fear what we can see. We project our fears onto the shadows. We see shadows and we make them bigger than they are.

Austin Gardner:

The shadow as a child, there were comic books about a hero called the shadow. He was in movies and cartoons and TV stories and he had a black cloak and a wide-brimmed hat and he did magic tricks and he supposedly had the power to cloud men's minds and often be unseen doing it. People only hearing his voice. The shadow. As a child, the shadow was a crime fighter and he defeated villains and I wanted to be like him. I wanted to be there. The shadow would say I'll be there around every corner and every empty room, as inevitable as your guilty conscience. To psychology, the shadow represents repressed or hidden aspects of your personality. So we want to talk just briefly about that shadow.

Austin Gardner:

According to the Hebrew lexicon, shadows are deep darkness, distress, gloom, extreme danger and the world of the dead. A different word describes shadow when it signifies protection. That's in the Bible, in the Hebrew Bible. Now, those all come from the Hebrew lexicon, the Hebrew dictionary. The word is a scary, doom and gloom word.

Austin Gardner:

Shadow, the valley of the shadow of death. The shadow of death is a very dark and dreary thing. David is passing through one of the darkest valleys of his life and there is no way we can soften those words. When you're going through the worst of times, when the shadows of death are hovering around you and they're menacing and threatening you, you can trust your shepherd. There's no need to try to act like nothing's happening.

Austin Gardner:

The shadow is not just merely passing darkness, it's death's shadow passing over David. Don't try to lighten the mood with this shadow. It's not just a brief darkness, it's terrifying. Nothing scares us more than death. We intellectually believe and think great thoughts, but since we have no idea what it's like to die, we personally fear it. It's the last great enemy of all mankind. David's closest friends are around him, but he's still alone. Death looms. He knows that without a miracle, everything is over for him. We know that that shadow has been defeated in our lives. Jesus, life itself, died and destroyed death. He has the keys of death and hell and David sort of sees that prophetically. He focuses on and speaks to his shepherd.

Austin Gardner:

David is very careful that his shepherd is with him. He knows that, he says that and he's capable of defending him. I don't know what you're going through right now. I don't know what you've gone through. I don't know what your darkest days are. You may feel like it's over or nearly over. You may feel like you're about to die or be destroyed or wish you were. What do you do? Well, he begins by meditating on the shepherd and what the shepherd does today. I want you to get that Meditate on the shepherd.

Austin Gardner:

David doesn't focus on himself or the circumstances or the shadows. He changes his thinking. That's what you got to do. He starts by talking about the shepherd and then, in this verse, he switches to talking to the shepherd. But he's not asking anything. He's just saying what's already. True You're with me, thou art with me, I will fear no evil. You already have God's promises. They are true. All things are ours. We can ask for anything and expect it to be answered. Think about your shepherd. Meditate on your shepherd. Stop thinking about your circumstances or what's happening to you. Stop thinking about your shepherd. Meditate on your shepherd. Stop thinking about your circumstances or what's happening to you. Stop thinking about your failures. Start thinking about the great love God has for you. Talk to the shepherd and thank him for being with you. Realize you are not alone. You are not alone, not in your darkest moments, not when the shadows of death linger around you. He are not alone, not in your darkest moments, not when the shadows of death linger around you. He cares for you. Cast all your fear on him Because he takes your burdens and your fears and your hurts, because he loves you. He loves you just like he loves his own son. The love of the Trinity, and for us it's everywhere. Thank God for that love.

Austin Gardner:

Now I want to talk to you, specifically to you. You're listening to me. Maybe you're driving down the road right now and it's pretty easy to talk like this when you know I'm talking behind a microphone to my computer, but you're dealing with cancer, or your spouse left you or your children are rebelling, or you can't afford to pay your bills, you lost your job or something horrible is happening to your family and you don't know where to turn. You don't know what to do and your life is like messed up major time. The shadows are there and you look at the shadows and they scare you more every moment. Your thoughts, every thought is horrible. It's hard to sleep at night the shadows. It gets dark and quiet and alone, and even my wife is asleep over there and I'm alone. I've gotten up in the night and come to my office and laid on that couch right there and sat there sleeping, trying to sleep, because I'm dealing with shadows.

Austin Gardner:

But I have victory now and I want you to have victory and I have that victory because I learned this when the thoughts come, I got to change my focus. I focus on my shepherd, not the shadows. I begin to think about the Lord is my shepherd. I have meditated on this so much that it is like a part of my DNA. Now that's what I'm challenging you to do.

Austin Gardner:

I want you to spend the day thinking the Lord is my shepherd. He is with me. I will not fear shadows. He will comfort me. He is my comforter. He lives in me. You've seen great truths from this passage of scripture. Think about that all day. Today. He loves you, I don't care what you've done. I don't know how many times you messed up. He loves you just like he did. He's never loved you more than he loves you right now. There's nothing you can do to make him love you more. He loves you, and so I challenge you to rest in his love and to thank God for how good he is to you and to know this you don't have to be afraid of the shadows, because you have a shepherd, and that shepherd is with you and he will take care of you.

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