Do Not Fear

Over and over again throughout the Word God tells us, Do not fear.  I am with you!  Don’t be afraid.  Trust in me!  Do not worry!  I will take care of you.  We read these words over and over and over again, yet we fail to let them penetrate our hearts.  So many times we are crippled by our fears and worries.  We forget that the creator of the universe is in control and that He is deserving of our complete trust.

Growing up I would worry about typical things; grades, friends, sports, and random other things that used to seem like a really big deal to me.  In college my worry turned more towards figuring out what I was going to do with my life after graduation.  I remember my sophomore year of college after returning from my semester in Honduras being panicked.  For the past 10 years I had been planning on moving to Honduras after graduation and being a missionary, but now I knew that wasn’t what I needed to do.  God had shown me that that wasn’t His plan, but He hadn’t yet shown me what His plan was.  I remember being so stressed, worried, and afraid.  He was teaching me a very valuable lesson…Trust!  Trust in Him! 

One night as I was stressing about trying to plan out my life God spoke to my heart in a very clear way.  He reminded me so clearly, “I have never let you take a breath alone, and I promise I never will.”  That simple reminder of His presence has calmed my heart in amazing ways.  I wish I could say that I never worry, but that is not the case.  There are still times when I forget that the creator of the universe is in complete control and I allow worry to slip in. 

God often reminds me that my worrying gets me nowhere.  One day I was sitting on a plane and my flight was delayed.  Because I have always lived in small cities like Little Rock and Oklahoma City with small airports I have found that there is no such thing as a direct flight!  My first flight was delayed and I started worrying that I wasn’t going to make my connection.  I sat there in my seat anxious about making my connection and then realized this isn’t doing me any good.  My worry wasn’t going to make my plane get there any faster.  My worry wasn’t going to guarantee that I would make my connection.  All my worry was going to do was get me wound up over something I couldn’t control.  So often we get wound up and anxious over things we can't do anything about.  Our worry doesn’t change anything!

Whenever I start to feel anxious or afraid I must remember that nothing will ever happen to me that doesn’t first pass through the hands of my God.  That doesn’t mean that everything is always going to be easy and great, but I know that my God will never give me more than I can handle.  I know that my God’s love for me surpasses anything I could ever imagine.  I know that my God is working things out for my good since I love Him.  I know that He is worthy of my trust.  So I have no reason or excuse to worry about anything.

When I worry I am pretty much telling God, “I don’t trust you.”  Francis Chan puts it this way in his book Crazy Love, “Worry implies that we don’t quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what’s happening in our lives.”  That is not the message that I want to be communicating to my God.

When I look back over my short 23 years of life that I have had on this earth so far, I can’t think of one moment of worry that has gotten me anywhere or that has changed anything.  Sometimes the things I have worried about have actually happened, more often than not they haven’t.  Even in the hard times when the things I have worried about have gone “wrong” my God has shown His faithfulness to me.

One of my favorite verses is Philippians 4:6-7

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about EVERYTHING.  Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.  His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

This verse reminds me that when I start to worry I need to start to pray.  God knows what we need!  He knows what we need far more than we know what we need.  As I am reminded of all that He has already done for me, my heart is flooded with peace.  He has NEVER given me a reason not to trust Him.  I have no reason to worry.  In fact, He commands us over and over again not to worry.  It isn’t merely a suggestion.  Worry is a sin. 

So I pray that my heart will trust fully in my savior.  He has done so much for me.  He has prepared for me a place in Heaven.  This life is short, and soon I will be home with Him.  There is no pain here on earth that heaven cannot fix.  I have no reason to worry.  My God is in control and I trust in Him!