The LORD is my light and my salvation– whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life– of whom shall I be afraid? When evil men advance against me to devour my flesh, when my enemies and my foes attack me, they will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident. [Psalm 27:1-3]
Is it OK to be afraid sometime, I know I am.
Right now I am not afraid of people, or of getting sick, or of dying, or of being attacked… but I do have this gnawing fear of the ‘what ifs’.
I’ve been chewing over the ‘what ifs’ of failure, if things do not work out like I hope here in Ajax.
I also find my mind dwelling on the negative side of things, assuming the worst about what people are thinking, feeling my inadequacies, my mistakes, my folly.
Thankfully I keep myself going on a steady diet of bible-reading.
Its so good to see that other people struggled with fear… like the disciples (and they were with Jesus!)
And its so good to hear people like David claim that they wouldn’t even be afraid of a vast army charging against him.
Though part of me says, ‘yeah right, sounds good in theory, but if a real army was coming!?’
Somehow I don’t think that David meant that he did not experience fear (other psalms suggest that he did), but that he is choosing to focus on how big God is, not how big the armies are… and that he is choosing to not fear.
It all depends on who we listen to, on what we focus on.
Casting Crowns has a great song called Voice of Truth that I find inspires me, reminding me of whose voice I need to listen to, and whose I need to ignore.
I hope it does the same for you.
Do you struggle with fear? What do you find helpful when facing fears? What bible passages speak the voice of truth to you?
This is such a great song …
But its the voice of truth,
tells me a different story …
tells me not to be afraid …
that this is for My glory …
I will choose to listen and to believe … the Voice of Truth
For me, I think my headspace is just wired differently at times than other people … sometimes this is good and other times not so good! I find I don’t even click into the next cognitive level of thinking through the details. I just jump into vast nothingness and react to things as I go along. But when the real times of fear do latch on to me, God’s word is so gratefully accepted. I cannot tell you how many times I have gone through various scenarios and it is words from my dailing readings that spring up uncannily current and relative for the moment. God’s voice of truth is my lifeline. He gives me the strength to remember that I can choose another option than the fear that trys to shove me in a corner.
It is these times of fear that show me that God really does have a relationship with me – he always seems to show up in the most creative of ways!