Afraid

What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”   Psalm 56:3 

from clm
Well, that old “holiday”, Halloween is getting closer and I’ve already seen lots of Halloween decorations in the stores. Another thing we have to look forward to this time of year is all those scary movie advertisements. What’s with that anyway? Actually most of them don’t look scary, just full of violence.

When I was little, those old black and white vampire movies were scary enough for me. Just the look in that vampire’s eyes would send me right under the blanket. I didn’t even need to see any blood. I’d hide my head under the covers until I thought it was safe to come out. Actually I still hold the blanket up in front of my face if I don’t want to see something gorey or scary on television. When I’m smart, I just turn it off. Yes! I admit it. I’m a scaredy-cat!

I got to thinking about being afraid and some of the things that we as Christians are afraid of.

• Things of Our Own Making
  Adam in the Garden of Eden comes to mind. Well, what do you know. I guess humans have been scaredy-cats from way back. Here it was at the very beginning of the earth and Adam was “afraid”.Remember Adam and Eve had eaten of the fruit that God told them not to. They weren’t hiding under the covers but they were hiding in the garden.And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” Genesis 3:8-10

  Breaking fellowship with the Lord is a scary place to be. I know some people live right there most of their lives, getting farther and farther away from God.

  There are other consequences of our own making too, not necessarily all rooted in sin. It may be that sometimes we have to make decisions that are hard because we know there are going to be consequences that come along with those decisions.

  Sometimes these things of our own making seem to be lurking there like a big shadow in the dark that comes right up to us and shouts, “boo!”.

• Things That Are Bigger Than We Are.
  Are you familiar with Goliath and the challenge he gave Saul and the Israelites in 1 Samuel? Here comes that big giant of a Philistine and it sent shivers through those big strong men that were in the army. When I read that chapter I can just hear Goliath’s words of challenge just bellowing out of him. It says that,“When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.” 1 Samuel 17:11Ever have something come in your life that was just bigger than you are? An extremely heavy burden that you’ve had to bear? It looks like a monster in the dark with its big fangs looming over you.

  Things that are way bigger than us and make us feel tiny in comparison are one of those things that make us afraid.

• Things That We Don’t Understand.
  Look at Mary, the mother of Jesus in Luke chapter 1. The angel came to her and told her that she was chosen to carry the Christ-child. Certainly Mary had reason to be afraid. She didn’t understand what was happening.“And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. ” Luke 1:29, 30I think that the things we don’t understand sometimes are the scariest. It’s hard to deal with those things because we don’t know how to process it or see it in a tangible form.

  It’s like the howling sounds of the wind on a dark and stormy night shrieking at us.

• Things That Give Us Immediate Danger.
  That story of Peter walking on the water comes to my mind. Remember how he got out of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. He was fine until he started looking around and took his eyes off of the Lord.“But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Matthew 14:30, 31 Peter’s fear was of immediate danger. He thought he was going to drown right then and there if the Lord didn’t help him. Don’t you hate those immediate danger situations? They are scary. You might be in the middle of one right now.

  It’s like those big old waves are staring at you in the face and starting to cover you until you feel you can’t breathe anymore.

Conclusion:
There are always going to be things that are going to scare us and make us afraid, even as Christians. Fear is an emotion we have built in us as humans but we shouldn’t let fear overtake us.

What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”   Psalm 56:3