When I am Afraid…
Psalm 27:1 KJV
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Have you ever had a bad dream? A bad dream that woke you up from your sleep? Or a phobia on something that you could not remove? Have you experienced something that is so scary or life threatening that it weakens you just thinking about it? All of us have different stories about these awful things but the funny thing is, these are normal; they are a part of the life that we have.
Fear, horror, dread- feelings that shake you from your relaxed state. Emotions that can haunt you in your dreams and taunt you when you are awake. Emotions that generate a scare, panic, worry, alarm inside of you. These are things and emotions that you occasionally feel and what you do with them and how you react to them is really important.
I know your initial reaction to those moments is to hide, cry, be afraid, worry or panic, but don’t. I know it’s hard to relax and stay put but try it. Relax. Breath in, breath out. Close your eyes. Pray. I remember when I was a kid I would always sing Steve Green’s “When I am Afraid”, a song that was based on Psalm 56:3-4 ([3] When I am afraid, I will trust in thee. [4] In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.) They are verses about trusting God, leaving everything to Him: about trusting His word. This song is a sweet and firm reminder for little me back then but now that I’m older and have read the Bible, I have put into heart Psalm 27:1.
When we were kids, we knew so little about the world, thus we trusted a lot of people but when we grew older, we knew who to put our trust into. And as I told you before, God proved to me and to every one in this world that we can trust Him. Who is the light that shines the path that we take? The salvation that was given to us, the salvation we did not deserve? Who is the strength that carries us when we fall down and are weak to even move? That’s God. He is the one: our light, our salvation, our strength. He is the one who we can put our trust into and we can even have the confidence to proclaim that He will not break our trust.
It’s not easy facing our fears and being afraid but with God, we can face them head on.
