Faith the Antidote to Fear

I grew up in a small row house in the city of Harrisburg, PA. And for a family of seven ... I felt that smallness every day (the only good thing about the smallness of the house was the smallness of the front and back yards - made mowing the lawn a very quick chore - even for a fifth grader)! Our house was two stories with a basement. The basement was finished ... but for me as a youngster, I found it to be somewhat scary. In fact, I went through a stretch of time where almost every night I had a nightmare .... the exact same nightmare. In the dreams I would find myself in the basement (at night of course) when suddenly from the shadows the boogeyman would come for me (the boogeyman was always a nondescript shadow of sorts ... so I never knew quite what he was -- I just knew he was to be avoided at all cost!). As I would make a beeline for the stairs the lights would go out. In each dream I would always make it about half way up the steps when I would begin to feel myself being pulled back down into the darkness. At this point I would begin to scream for help -- but alas, no sound would come out of my mouth no matter how hard I tried to scream. At this point I would wake up with my little heart pounding and my little forehead soaked in sweat. I am glad to say that I finally got through that period in my life ... even to the point of being willing to convert the basement into my twin brother's and my bedroom when my little brother came along.

Now that fear of the boogeyman was quite irrational. We all know that there is no such creature! And just where I learned about the boogeyman I cannot recall. But fear is often like that. Many fears (not all, but probably most) are irrational. We fear what we do not need to fear. And the reason we are so prone to fear the various "boogeymen" in our lives - is that our faith is weak. Friends the antidote to fear is faith! When we are trusting our God (and when one considers who God is and what he has promised - why not trust him?) and faith is filling our minds and our hearts, there will be no room for fear to take residence!

Sooooooo -- today say to Jesus (as the disciples said in Luke 17:5), "Increase our (MY) faith!" For as your faith increases ... your fears will decrease. And that's a very good thing!

Thanks for stopping by . . .

pj