So do not fear, for I am with you;
do not be dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you and help you;
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
Remember being afraid of the dark?
The
monster under the bed?
Reading
out loud in class?
Anxiety, fear's best friend, has plagued me for as
long as I can remember. I counted how many paragraph's my classmates had to
read before my turn, then practiced the words in my head. All while I wrung my
hands in worry. At night, I'd pull my arms and legs in tight, so the monster under
the bed couldn't grab a dangling limb. If I was caught outside in the dark, I'd
run so hard that I panted like a dog.
Those were the fears of childhood.
Those childish fears morphed into adult anxieties.
Fear of failure, uncertainty at work, clutching material possessions too close,
worrying about the very things I could do nothing about. Or worse, worry over
things that would never happen. And the list grows. The more fear takes over—the
more anxiety and worry explode.
Fear can be crippling. Many of the things we dread,
never happen. I've learned to examine what I'm afraid of, and most of the time
I'm relieved to find there was nothing to be alarmed about in the first
place. When I am truly afraid with legitimate concern, I pray. I transfer
my fear to the One who loves me. He promises to give me
strength and hold me in his hand.
Through faith, I trust Jesus to take my fear and
calm my soul. In 1 John 4:18 I read, "There is no fear in love."
Jesus is the love that drives out fear.
I've had a lot of worries in my life, most of which never happened. -Mark Twain