Isaiah 57:11
““Whom have you dreaded and feared, so that you lie, and have not remembered me, nor laid it to your heart? Haven’t I held my peace for a long time, and you don’t fear me?”
What does Isaiah 57:11 mean?
God is asking a searching question here: what has made you so afraid that you've turned away from truth and forgotten about me? The prophet is pointing out that the people have been so consumed by their anxieties and what they fear losing that they've stopped trusting God and started living dishonestly instead. God's gentle complaint is that he's been patient with them for a long time, quietly waiting, but they haven't responded by drawing closer to him or taking his presence seriously. It's an invitation to notice that whatever we're most afraid of losing often becomes what controls us more than God does, and that returning our attention to him can free us from that grip.