"When I am
afraid, I will put my trust in You. In
God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be
afraid. What can mere man do to me?” Psalm 56:3-4
Boo!...Is That You?
Well it’s been a
week since Halloween. And what a fun and exciting time it was for children and
adults alike. Not only can they put on a
costume and assume the identity of various creatures, super heroes, sports
figures, and public servants; but they also find innocent recreation in the
characters normally cloaked in the stuff of nightmares: witches, ghosts, and
goblins; skeletons, and ghoulish masks.
This parade of pretenders then makes its way house to house…or trunk to
trunk as might be the case, where they are presented all sorts of sweets. Great family fun! It is hard to believe that
it is a tradition born out of fear though, isn’t it?
I Fear Nothing…But That.
Fears. Everyone has them. You’re probably reflecting on yours right
now. I am too. Spiders, heights, failure, mean people…Our
lists would likely be very similar. Fear
is normative to all of humanity.
Everyone is afraid from time to time.
But where do we turn when we are afraid?
When we are afraid, what makes us unafraid?
In the Wizard of
Oz, the Cowardly Lion delivered his great speech on courage. But courage isn’t the absence of fear. It is said that courage is the determination
to go on in spite of fear. With what do
we go on when we are afraid? In the
passage above, the Psalmist wrote that in times of fear, we are to put our
trust in God. That trust is called
“faith.” Faith is that which gives us
the courage to face our fears. Hebrews
11:1 states: “Now faith is confidence in
what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
Faith assures us
that our God, who has done what he said he would do before, will be faithful to
do what he says he will yet do. How
often have we heard our Pastor say that “our strength is in direct proportion
to our faith, and our faith is in direct proportion to our knowledge of
God.”? And it’s true! The more we learn about God, the more our
faith is increased. And the more our
faith increases, the more we feel we can accomplish…even in light of the fear
of that which is uncertain, or apparent that we cannot change. Have faith in God!
So confident is the
writer of the Psalm that he states: “In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid.” I do not expect that you and I are going to
live this life never experiencing fear.
I do however encourage us, that in that hour of fear, we remember to
place our confidence in the powerful, unfailing, ever present, hands of
God. Whether or not we can see how things
are going to turn out, we place our trust in Him. Fear not.
Almighty God, We
feel we are so strong. We seem so
able. Yet we are so fearful
sometimes. Yet you are our salvation! In you we find life and life eternal. You provide us all we need. We believe in
you. Help us in our unbelief. Help us to
live by faith…not fear. In Jesus’ name
we pray, Amen.
