Paralyzed by FEAR!!!

Yesterday when I was home for lunch, I asked my one and half year old grandson, John, if he wanted to see "Mr. Monkey" (Mr. Monkey is a small hand puppet who lives in our hall closet). Little Jack (little John's unfortunate nickname) immediately took off toward the hall closet  (with me in fast pursuit). As he rounded the corner from the living room and into the hallway in which the closet is located, he stopped dead in his tracks (he stopped so quickly I almost fell over him). There standing on the floor ... bigger than life (well, definitely bigger than Jack) was THE VACUUM CLEANER!  As Jack stood quietly staring at the vacuum, I opened the closet door and encouraged him to come see Mr. Monkey. But alas, NO WAY was Jack going to take  another step toward that vacuum cleaner! He was paralyzed by his fear!

Hmm. I am guessing that many who might happen to read this post will be able to relate to Jack and his experience. You may not be afraid of a vacuum cleaner (most of us grow out of that fear -- now some might be afraid to use a vacuum cleaner - but that is something different!), but you are afraid of something ... and possibly many things (according to the phobialist.com, there are over 500 identifiable phobias from which people suffer).

So why does fear so easily afflict us? Disrupt our lives? Paralyze us?

The Bible speaks a lot about fear and anxiety (the two are very much related). My guess is that the biggest contributor to fear is our small view of God. That's right. When our God is "small" (in our minds) then our problems become BIG and often HUGE ... and sometimes INSURMOUNTABLE and LIFE THREATENING! King David understood this. In Psalm 27:1 he asks two questions: "The LORD is my light and salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" The answer, of course, is NO ONE (He states something similar in Psalm 56:3-4). The Apostle Paul also speaks to this topic in Romans 8:31 where he writes, "If God if for us, who can be against us?" Again the answer is NO ONE!



So  you see my friends, if you understand that the Almighty God who spoke this vast universe into existence loves you and cares for you, you can rest in him. You do not have to fear! You do not have to be anxious about the future. Even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death (and it gets no more frightening than that!) you do not need to fear ... for our Almighty God is with you (see Psalm 23:4).





Thanks for stopping by . . .
pj