Jesus said to his followers, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” [Mark 4:40 (NCV)]
So don’t worry, because I am with you. Don’t be afraid, because I am your God. I will make you strong and will help you; I will support you with my right hand that saves you. [Isaiah 41:10 (NCV)]
Yesterday, I wrote about unfounded fears. Although I’m a bit of a nervous flyer, I’d rather travel than stay home, so I pray and fly. While I’m a little nervous about heights, I’d rather ride than hike up the mountain, so I pray and ride the lifts. Since my little Ziggy-like guy can easily capture my irrational fears, they rarely plague me. It’s not fear of external things like plane crashes or gondola accidents, however, that disturb me. Instead, it’s the fear that happens when I focus on me instead of God. Will I be wounded, bothered, abandoned or tested? What if I don’t succeed, reach my goal, or make a good impression? Will I be welcome? What if I make a mistake?
Recently, during his message, our pastor asked us to call out our fears. People were afraid of being honest, rejected or criticized. They were afraid of apologizing, failing and even of succeeding. They were afraid of taking risks, moving ahead, standing up for themselves, or letting go of old habits. Those are the kinds of fear that damage our daily lives; unfortunately, they are much harder than those big unfounded ones to identify and capture.
Fears like these sneak up on us; instead of being easily spotted like a butterfly, they’re more like those no-see-ums that afflicted me last night on the beach. It was nearly impossible to see those teeny gnats but they surely made their presence known. They sucked my blood the same way those tiny niggling fears can suck the life from us. And, just like the itch from those bites annoys me today, those fears are equally irritating and troublesome. While a little cortisone and Benadryl relieve the itching, faith is the best medicine for fear.
Fear is about us and doubting our abilities; faith is about God and trusting His. Fear holds us back; faith moves us forward. Fear keeps us focused on our inabilities; faith acknowledges those inabilities and puts our focus on God. Fear restricts and faith releases. Fear prevents and becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. On the other hand, faith enables and empowers us to fulfill God’s purpose for us. Our destiny is shaped by our fears or our faith. Which will it be?
Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears. [Les Brown]
We can feed our faith with the Word, rather than feeding doubt with the devil’s lies. [Joyce Meyer]
Bad things happen, unforeseen events occur, and every one of us will eventually become a fatality statistic of some kind. A certain amount of fear or caution is wise in our unpredictable world. Most of us, however, are rather selective in our fears. We obsess over things about which we have little or no control and ignore those things over which we do. We don’t want to give up control to the pilot when the odds of dying in a plane crash are 1 in 11 million but trust our driving when the odds of a fatal car crash are 1 in 5 thousand! While we are far more likely to die of heart disease (1 in 6), we tend to obsess about things like dying in a terrorist attack (1 in 20 million). In actuality, we are fourteen times more likely to die in our bathtubs and twenty-five times more likely to die by choking on our food than in a terrorist attack, but we prefer not to think about that while bathing or eating.
After the GPS flawlessly led us to our hotel in Orlando, we wondered how a satellite navigation system can keep track of countless cars and their various destinations. The following day, I looked at the GPS screen and the arrow indicating our position was several blocks east of us. It seemed to think we were driving over a golf course, across a canal and into a lake. Apparently, that eye in the sky is nowhere near as accurate as we’d originally thought. There are around 24 satellites orbiting at any one time to provide us with global positioning and we need to receive signals from at least three of them to get accurate directions. The line between the satellites and GPS must be unobstructed, so tall buildings, heavy woods, tunnels, mountains, and storms can all interfere with receiving a signal. We figured something had interfered with the satellites’ view of us. Later that day, after following its directions to Sea World, our faith in the system was shattered. As we passed Sea World’s clearly marked exit, we were told to continue five miles eastward and then go north. At that point, we consulted a map and turned around. Personally, I think we got someone else’s directions to an entirely different location! We were just one car among thousands of tourists using their GPS to guide them through the land of Mickey Mouse. Perhaps the system was overloaded and some other poor soul was being led to Sea Word when he probably wanted to go to the Magic Kingdom. Who knows? All I know is that I’m not getting rid of our maps anytime soon!
If I ran the world, I wouldn’t be plagued with arthritis and my husband wouldn’t have a bum leg that prevents him from skiing and snowshoeing. As long as I’m fantasizing, calories wouldn’t count, we’d always have fresh powder on the slopes, and ski boots would be comfortable. If I ran the world, floors would mop themselves but, chances are, I’d end up like Mickey Mouse in the movie Fantasia and find myself overwhelmed with uncontrollable brooms, buckets and a flood. As the cartoon mouse learned, power without wisdom can make for a mess. Fortunately, God hasn’t resigned from His role and I concede that His plan is always better than mine. I’ve come to recognize that even when we understand God’s plan, even when we know His plan is the right one, and even when we finally accept it, we may not necessarily like it very much.
Jehovah Rapha, the “Lord who Heals You,” was the name of God proclaimed to the Israelites through Moses at Marah. Indeed, a God who could make the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers clean and raise Lazarus from the dead can heal any physical ailment.
Devotions of the Heart 