Fear can be the most crippling thing in the world. Sometimes, fear can be paralyzing. You find yourself lying there in the night unable to sleep because all you can think of is IT. Whatever it may be. We've all been there, at one extreme or the other. What do we do when fear stares us in the face?
I had one of those moments this week, where worries and fear threatened to overwhelm me. And the Lord brought to mind Psalm 56:11. I was trying to remember a verse on fear, and that popped in my head. So, I opened my Bible to Psalms, and highlighted in bright pink was "in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?" It was one of those moments where I knew God was speaking right to me.
What can man do to me? A lot of things. I could make a list of troubling things that man does in the world. That's not the point though. I realized the importance of the phrase "in God I trust." We trust in God, the Creator of the Universe, the One who knows the stars by name. He is Almighty and awesome and holy and powerful. We trust in the One who parted the Red Sea, who tells the storm "Be still" and it obeys. We trust in the God of Israel, the Promise Maker and Promise Keeper. We trust in the One who died for us on the Cross.
Do you know what our fear says to God? It's like we're saying "I trust you God, but you're not enough for 'IT.'" You're not enough to take care of this situation or this relationship or this really scary thing in my life. What a slap in the face. That was a sobering thought for me.
When fear draws near, we need to remember that God is enough. Remembering who He is makes my heart say "In God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Because, when we trust in God, we know that anything man tries to do to harm us, God will take care of. We shall truly see that "no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed" (Isaiah 54:17). And, "Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust.."(Psalm 40:4). We can trust the Lord with it all.