Category Archives: Fear & Doubt

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July 19, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, Fear & Doubt, Trusting God, Worry

TRUSTING GOD

This I declare about the Lord: He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; he is my God, and I trust him. [Psalm 91:2 (NLT)]

The Lord is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? [Psalm 27:1 (NLT)]

During our western trip with the grands, I wasn’t the only one to step out of my comfort zone. The two youngsters (fifteen and eighteen) took some big steps when they did a four-hour “Treetop Adventure” – think Swiss Family Robinson crossed with the X-Games or Tarzan meets American Ninja Warrior. After ascending the mountain, they had a short safety briefing, suited up in body harnesses with tethers, and set off on their aerial adventure. They maneuvered through the tree tops on elements like swaying bridges, z-shaped balance beams, high wires, hanging ropes, swinging logs, and flying skateboards. They climbed ladders, scrambled up and through cargo nets, rode thirteen zip lines, tree top adventure - jacksonand literally jumped through hoops; all of this took place some twelve to eighty feet above the forest floor.

Their equipment included a safety belay system which, in theory, always kept them clipped to a safety wire. Although participants could fall, the harness and tethers would keep them from falling more than a few feet. While it would be difficult, they could pull themselves back up and continue the course. If unable to get back up, injured, exhausted, or faint of heart, there were a few guides scattered about who could effect a rescue and lower them down to the ground. In spite of all the safety precautions, the detailed waiver we’d signed that morning made it clear there was an element of risk to the activity.

As we watched (and prayed) from the ground while the teens progressed through the course, I thought of my granddaughter’s words earlier that day: “I know it’s dangerous and that I might fall, but I also know that I’m tethered to the cable and can’t fall far.” That’s the sort of confidence we find in the Psalms. David, of course, faced far greater challenges than a ropes’ course and zip lines and, rather than trusting a cable and safety harness, he trusted God. Trusting God doesn’t mean there’s no risk or that we might not fall. Trusting God means that, like the safety harness, we know God’s there to catch us! Trusting God doesn’t mean that our journey will be easy or effortless. Trusting God means that while our journey may be challenging, like the arduous ropes’ course, getting through it is possible. Trusting God doesn’t mean we’ll never find ourselves in a dark valley. Just as the guides were there to help in an emergency, trusting God means we know we’ll never be in that dark place alone; God is always with us.

The kids completed their adventure without mishap (Praise God!). Their confidence in facing that extreme course made me wonder why I so often am hesitant about taking on much lesser challenges: not challenges requiring a liability waiver or a tethered safety harness but challenges that simply require trusting in the Lord.

If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear. His eye is upon us, His arm over us, His ear open to our prayer – His grace sufficient, His promise unchangeable. [John Newton]

Even when I walk through the darkest valley, I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff protect and comfort me. [Psalm 23:4 (NLT)]

I entrust my spirit into your hand. Rescue me, Lord, for you are a faithful God. …  So be strong and courageous, all you who put your hope in the Lord! [Psalm 31:5,24 (NLT)]

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July 18, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Fear & Doubt, God's Plan, Obedience, Worry

LEAVING THE COMFORT ZONE

snake river raftingHe said, “That’s what I mean: Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag.” [Luke 19:26 (MSG)]

If I am never tempted, and cannot even imagine myself being tempted, to gamble, this does not mean that I am better than those who are. The timidity and pessimism which exempt me from that temptation themselves tempt me to draw back from those risks and adventures which every man ought to take. [From “Reflections on the Psalms” by C.S. Lewis]

We were accompanied by two grandchildren, ages fifteen and eighteen, during part of our trip west. When my husband mentioned taking them on a raft trip, I pictured a scenic float down the Snake River and readily agreed. What got booked, however, was a white water adventure. Not a thrill seeker, adrenaline inducing adventures are not my thing. I was not happy about the scheduled activity and began thinking of ways to gracefully bow out of it. By coincidence (or what I call God-incidence), the above quote by C. S Lewis arrived in my email. I realized that my fear of stepping out of my rather narrow comfort zone was threatening to keep me from sharing this once-in-a-lifetime experience with my precious grands. Lewis’ words (and some much needed prayer) convinced me that this was one adventure I should not miss.

Prayer got me in the raft and I bravely paddled through the rapids. Even after we tipped and lost six of the eight passengers on the third set of rapids, witnessing the grins on the kids’ faces as they were pulled back into the raft made both the dunking and the adrenaline spike worth it. All’s well that ends well and, in spite of the soaking in the rapids, the rafting wasn’t nearly as terrifying as I’d imagined. When asked to name the highlight of their twelve days with us, our grands both mentioned the raft trip—and to think I nearly missed sharing that experience with them! The pictures taken from the photographer’s spot on shore would not have captured their smiles and whoops of delight at the rapids or the thrill of the ride!

While a certain amount of caution is wise, as C.S. Lewis pointed out, there are certain risks and adventures that none of us should miss. Timidity, pessimism, faint-heartedness, fear, and anxiety can keep us from unsafe behavior like drugs, gambling, or adultery but they shouldn’t make us retreat “from those risks and adventures which every man [and woman] ought to take.” Consider what they would have missed if Peter had allowed fear to keep him from stepping out of the boat onto the water, if David had allowed faint-heartedness to keep him from facing Goliath, or if Moses and Gideon had allowed their pessimism to prevent them from accepting the tasks given them by God.

God invites us to participate in world-changing adventures that probably have nothing to do with white water rafting. We mustn’t allow a reticence to step out of our comfort zones prevent us from accepting His invitation to go on that journey. While the adventure may involve an element of risk, the rewards will be well worth it!

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies. … Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am. [Philippians 4:8-9,13 (MSG)]

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July 10, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, Church & Worship, Faith & Hope, Fear & Doubt, God's Word: The Bible, Joy, Prayer, Sorrow, Grief & Regrets, Thanks & Praise, Today: Make it Count

OUR PRAYERS

Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King over all the earth. Praise him with a psalm. [Psalm 47:6-7 (NLT)]

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer! Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged, Take it to the Lord in prayer. [“What a Friend We Have in Jesus” by Joseph Scriven]

ZINNIA“That’s more like it!” I thought as I read Psalm 47; I certainly preferred it to the curses of the previous set of Psalms I’d read. I’m reading the Bible in chronological rather than in canonical order which means that the various books and chapters have been divided and rearranged. As a result, the psalms of lament and complaint were grouped together during David’s trials and the praise psalms were placed after the chapters outlining the duties in the Temple. These psalms of worship, adoration and thanksgiving seem more appropriate for Israel’s book of hymns than the earlier ones about wickedness, treachery, calamity and vengeance.

Although I prefer the joyful psalms, there is a reason Israel’s prayer book has lasted over 3,000 years and continues to be our prayer book today. Rather than a sappy feel-good book of poetry, Psalms reflects the gamut of human experience and emotions. When the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, I’m surprised He didn’t tell them they already knew and direct them to the Psalms for guidance. The Psalms’ words are intense, raw and honest; they conceal nothing. If the Psalmist is suffering, fearful, angry, depressed, or exhausted, he says so as readily as when he expresses his elation, adoration and thanksgiving. Never pretending that all is well when it isn’t, he fearlessly lays out his emotions before God. Wretchedness and joy, pain and jubilation, wickedness and virtue, despair and hope, grief and thanksgiving, fear and confidence: all are articulated. It is in that depth of personal expression and experience that we find words of consolation, faith, trust, and hope.

When I seriously evaluate my own prayer life, I’m nowhere near as honest and bold as the psalmists. Of course, God knows my personal struggles but, unlike David and the rest of the psalmists, I’m not as willing to lay them so passionately or openly at His feet. When Joseph Scriven wrote the words, “Take it to the Lord in prayer,” he meant all of it, not just the pretty stuff. I’m sure God would prefer honest words of grievance to false words of praise any day.

A human heart is like a ship on a wild sea, driven by the storm-winds from the four quarters of the world. Here it is struck with fear, and worry about coming disaster; there comes grief and sadness because of present evil. Here breathes a breeze of hope and of expectation of happiness to come; there blows security and joy in present blessings. These storm-winds teach us to speak with earnestness, and open the heart, and pour out what lies at the bottom of it. … What is the greatest thing in the Psalter but this earnest speaking amid these storm-winds of every kind? Where does one find such words of joy as in the psalms of praise and thanksgiving? … On the other hand, where do you find deeper, more sorrowful, more pitiful words of sadness than in the psalms of lamentation? … And, as was said, it is the best thing of all that they speak these words to God and with God. [Martin Luther, Preface to the Psalter]

The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth. [Psalm 145:18 (NLT)]

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July 9, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Fear & Doubt, Obedience, Temptation & Sin, Wisdom & Guidance

MY ENEMIES

Why, then, have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed? For you have murdered Uriah the Hittite with the sword of the Ammonites and stolen his wife. From this time on, your family will live by the sword because you have despised me by taking Uriah’s wife to be your own. [2 Samuel 12:9-10 (NLT)]

green heronPsalm 139 is one of my favorites among the psalms. As I read it this morning, however, I got annoyed with David. Near the end of this beautiful song praising God for His omniscience, omnipresence, and intensely personal involvement in his life, David throws in a curse on his enemies. Granted, they’re God’s enemies, too, but sometimes David seems incredibly angry and vengeful. After comparing his enemies to deadly snakes, hungry lions, and vicious dogs, among others things, he wants them to dissolve into slime like snails, be cast into the fire, become palsied and blind, and for their wives to become widows and their children fatherless beggars. One Bible commentary said David had a “particularly vigorous attitude toward the enemy,” but wanting to wash his feet in the blood of the wicked sounds merciless and vindictive to me.

The NLT Bible has 143 occurrences of “enemy” or “enemies” in Psalms and even the beautiful 23rd Psalm mentions enemies! Indeed, David had his share of enemies including Goliath, King Saul, Absalom (the son who tried to overthrow the kingdom), Ahithophel (the counselor who defected to Absalom), and Adonijah (who tried to wrest the crown from Solomon), along with the enemy nations of the Philistines, Moabites, Geshurites, Girzites, Amalekites, and Ammonites. Looking at his history, I understand why he wrote about enemies but what do these angry Psalms mean to me? I’d never think, let alone say, some of the cruel things David does.

When trying to list our enemies, my husband and I agreed that deep in the dark web lurks someone who wants to steal our identities or hold our computers for ransom but we don’t want to wash our feet in his blood. We know that radical Islamic terrorists probably count as enemies and we’re not comfortable with North Korea, Russia, China, Iran, Syria or Iraq, but we certainly don’t want them destroyed. As for individuals, we could think of none who qualify as enemies. We’ve had competitors, rivals, opponents, and some very annoying and exasperating people in our lives, but we’ve never thought of them as enemies. So again, what do these Psalms mean to us?

Looking again at David’s history, I see a far greater enemy than Saul or the Philistines: David himself. Although courageous, he could be afraid and it was fear that made him lie to Ahimelech and pretend to be insane to King Achish. By allying himself with the Philistines, he was both deceitful and a traitor. In spite of seven wives (and numerous concubines), the lustful man took another man’s wife as his own and killed her husband. At best, David was an inattentive father; he failed to punish his son Amnon for raping Tamar and ignored Absalom. A reckless man of pride and ambition, he failed to follow God’s directions concerning the Ark and census. While loyal to his friends, David was ruthless to his enemies. Considered a man after God’s heart, we like to think of David as the ideal man but, like any man or woman, he had his dark side. Nathan’s words in 2 Samuel tell us that most of David’s calamities were the result of his own sins.

My enemies, like David’s real enemies, are not flesh and blood. They are pride, fear, anger, hate, doubt, insecurity, unforgiveness, thoughtlessness, impatience, jealousy, arrogance, materialism, pretense, and lack of faith. Like David, I want God to smash their jaws, break off their fangs, and make them disappear like water into thirsty ground! ”We have met the enemy and he is us!” are the words cartoonist Walt Kelly put in Pogo’s mouth. How right he was!

Rescue me from my enemies, Lord; I run to you to hide me. Teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your gracious Spirit lead me forward on a firm footing. [Psalm 143:9-10 (NLT)]

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June 27, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Fear & Doubt, God's Plan, Miracles, Trusting God

HIS TIME IS THE RIGHT TIME

butterfly weedBut when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. [Galatians 4:4 (NLT)]

When an angel of the Lord told the elderly priest Zechariah that his barren wife, Elizabeth, would conceive a son, the old man was struck dumb because of his unbelief. As happened with Samuel more than 1,000 years earlier, this child’s future was decided even before his conception. This time, however, it was God who decided the boy would be a Nazirite, have the spirit and power of Elijah, prepare the people for the coming of the Lord, and be named John. Imagine the mute Zechariah, with gestures and writing, trying to explain his supernatural encounter to Elizabeth and her reaction to his shocking news.

As strange as God’s timing must have seemed to the elderly Elizabeth, God’s timing probably seemed even stranger to Elizabeth’s cousin, a young virgin in Nazareth named Mary. While Elizabeth’s unexpected pregnancy seemed late in coming, Mary’s must have seemed terribly premature to her and her betrothed, a carpenter named Joseph. Nevertheless, both of these unexpected pregnancies were part of God’s enigmatic plan and came at exactly the right time, at least for Him.

We don’t know why God chose that particular time in history for the births of John and Jesus. Did God pick it because He had the right people to be the parents he needed? The priest and his wife were “righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations,” [Luke 1:6] which certainly qualified them as a prophet’s parents. For the parents of Jesus, God needed a both a virgin and lineage to King David. Rather than glowing words to describe Mary, we only have the virgin’s obedient and willing response. Risking rejection, disgrace, and even stoning, she willingly offered herself as God’s vessel. As for Joseph, he was a righteous man, of the house of David, and, like Mary, obedient to the Lord. Perhaps God chose that time because conditions were favorable for the start of a ministry: there was peace in the empire, Greek had become the universal language, an excellent road system enabled easy travel, and a postal service existed. Was it a perfect combination of both people and conditions? We’ll never know; we only know that the time was right for God.

Nevertheless, I’m sure God’s timing didn’t make much sense to either woman. For Elizabeth, God seemed late and, for Mary, He seemed way too early. Let us remember, however, that God is neither late nor early; He’s always right on time!

In the infinite wisdom of the Lord of all the earth, each event falls with exact precision into its proper place in the unfolding of His divine plan. Nothing, however small, however strange, occurs without His ordering, or without its particular fitness for its place in the working out of His purpose; and the end of all shall be the manifestation of His glory, and the accumulation of His praise. [B.B. Warfield]

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. [Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NLT)]

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June 14, 2018

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Attitudes & Behavior, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, Family, Friends & Fellowship, Fear & Doubt, God's Plan, Nature, Prayer, Thanks & Praise, Trusting God

LEAVING THE NEST

anhinga chicksMy child, pay attention to what I say. … Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life. … Look straight ahead, and fix your eyes on what lies before you. Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path. Don’t get sidetracked; keep your feet from following evil. [Proverbs 4:20a,23, 25-27 (NLT)]

This past spring we watched an anhinga family who’d nested near the swamp boardwalk. At first, mom and dad provided around the clock nest service for their brood of blind and helpless chicks. When the chicks were about three weeks old, rather than returning to the nest with food, the parents would perch nearby. If the youngsters wanted dinner, they had climb out of the nest and hop along a branch to get it. As the babies grew, mom and dad perched further and further from the nest until, at about six weeks, their chicks had to fly for their supper. Within two months of hatching, the youngsters were flying across the pond and the nest was abandoned. Mom and dad, however, were never too far away; perched nearby, they watched their brood learn to fend for themselves around the swamp. I wonder if they worried about their youngsters becoming dinner for an alligator while they fished or sunned on a log. Nevertheless, mom and dad knew their young ones had outgrown the nest; it was time to let them lead their own lives.

Today, my eldest grand receives her high school diploma. An honor student, she’s a delightful young woman and I know her parents are immensely proud of her many accomplishments. That pride, however, is combined with a fair amount of apprehension on their part. Later this summer, this young woman will leave the nest and move 5,500 miles to London where she’ll spend her freshman year of college. Although her parents won’t be worried about alligators, there will be plenty of other concerns that might keep them awake at night.

Our children: we love them, teach them, correct them, encourage them, support them, lead them, and guide them in an effort to prepare them for adulthood. As a mama, I know how difficult it is to let our children go, but let them go we must. After all, parenthood is a job that is supposed to become obsolete; it’s when our children are confident enough to leave home that we know we’ve done our job well. Let us praise God when we see them spread their wings and fly. No matter how far away they go, however, we still have the job of acting as prayer warriors for our children and we’ll do that for the rest of our lives.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the gift of children and the privilege of leading them into adulthood. Reassure those parents who are struggling with letting go; may their tears of sadness become ones of joy as they watch their children take their next steps. As we release our children to your tender care, we ask you to wrap your loving arms around them and protect them from the dangers of the world. May they always walk in your ways and grow in courage, strength and wisdom. Let your Holy Spirit fill them with faith, hope, and love. Teach them, guard them, lead them and lift them so that they soar!

A wise woman once said to me that there are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these she said is roots, the other, wings. And they can only be grown, these roots and these wings, in the home. We want our sons’ roots to go deep into the soil beneath them and into the past, not in arrogance but in confidence. [Hodding Carter]

My child, never forget the things I have taught you. Store my commands in your heart. … Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil. [Proverbs 3:1,5-7 (NLT)]

May the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. [Numbers 6:24-26]

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