You wake up suddenly. Something has startled you out of your sleep, but you’re not sure what. Then you hear the faint tinkle of glass falling onto hardwood floor from somewhere downstairs. You realize that this is the sound that woke you up. A quick glance at your phone shows that it is 2:38 in the morning.

That’s what you get for sneaking down for a late-night snack, you think with a bit of bemused frustration. Then you remember that your spouse is out of town until the weekend. Your stomach clenches. Your hands begin to sweat. Noiselessly, you sit up in your bed and reach for your phone. Keying in the unlock code, you quickly dial 911. With a trembling voice, you explain to the operator the situation—you’re alone and unarmed, you have two children in rooms down the hall, and someone is roaming around your house.

“Stay where you are,” the operator tells you. “We have a unit just five minutes away.”

Adrenaline is coursing through your body and it feels like your heart is running a sprint. Gently you slide off the bed and tiptoe to the closet. It takes just a moment to find what you are looking for—a bat, aluminum, the word Easton fading from its barrel.

A squeak carries through the home’s silence—the sound of a heavy foot finding the third step. Normally that’s a comforting sound telling you that the other side of your bed is about to be occupied. Tonight the emotion it evokes is anything but comforting. The 911 operator continues to talk, but you’ve tuned her out. Dropping the phone onto the bed, you creep forward and put your ear to the door. A second squeak tells you that they’ve reached step seven.

When the intruder arrives at the top of the stairs, they will find a hallway that stretches in each direction. The door to the immediate left is the room belonging to your nine-year-old. To the right is where your six-year-old is fast asleep. The police are likely just three minutes away, but those seconds might as well be an eternity. Standing there with a bat in your hand and your children at risk, what do you do?

Fear is the essence of a good fiction thriller. How would you react when life is at its most terrifying? I’ve spent my writing career leading my protagonists (and my readers) into the worst of situations so they are forced to answer the question “What would I do?” In my latest Marcus Ryker novel, The Jerusalem Assassin, a new terrorist organization called Kairos has been assassinating members of the American government. Now, the president of the United States is on his way to Jerusalem for a historic Temple Mount meeting with the king of Saudi Arabia and the prime minister of Israel. Using a new type of weapon that is impossible to detect, Kairos is also gathering in the Holy City for their attempt to take out three world leaders at once. With little information and even less time, Marcus Ryker and his team face off against an unknown enemy that is wielding an invisible weapon at the epicenter of one of the most volatile locations on the face of the earth. What if they can’t find the enemy? What if they can’t stop the weapon? It is those what-ifs that lead to fiction’s fear factor. It is also the what-ifs that bring us fear in real life.

The what-if questions surrounding COVID-19 are causing a great deal of fear around the world. We are living in a period of seemingly endless unanswerable speculations. What if a vaccine cannot be found? What if the economy can’t recover? What if this is the beginning of a U.S./China cold war? What if this all happens again next year? So many questions, but so few answers.

For the believer, however, there is no mystery to the what-if questions. Every one of them has a simple, yet profound response. That answer is God. “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose’” (Isaiah 46:9–10). Nothing that is happening in the world around us is out of God’s control or out of his plan. That doesn’t mean that he has caused this pandemic. Rather, we simply need to remember that he is sovereign and he will step in when and where it is necessary.

When Job was going through his sufferings, he challenged God’s fairness. His question was “Why?” “Why is all of this happening to me, Lord?” In reply, God gave Job’s “whys” the same answer he typically gives our what-ifs: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2). In other words, “Job, remember I am Creator and you are creation. No need to worry; I’ve got it all under control.” Notice that the Lord never punished Job for his questioning; neither did he ever actually answer his “why” question. Instead, he offered his beloved child a refresher course on his power and mankind’s dependency.

God understands if you are struggling with fear. But he wants you to know that fear is not necessary. You are his child. He loves you. He’s got this under control. He already has answers to all your what-if questions. Lay your fear at his feet, and let his overwhelming peace guard your heart and your mind.

—Joel