What do we do when we are afraid? Fear is not something that we can just dismiss and refuse to acknowledge. There are legitimate reasons to be afraid. There are things that do threaten our safety and well being and the safety and well being of those we love. When we admit that we are afraid and uncertain of what a new day may bring, we can at the same time turn to God to help us. Our fear brings us to the accurate conclusion that we cannot face difficult circumstances alone. And we do not have to face alone whatever challenges us and unsettles us and causes us to be afraid. We can admit that we are afraid and appeal to God to surround us with His loving care and we can ask Him to bring us through. In Psalm 91:1,2 we find a deeply reassuring expression of placing faith in God, “The one who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in Whom I trust.” Yes, whenever we have reason to be afraid, we can come to our loving God and find our place of rest with Him. God is our refuge and fortress. God is our place of safety when we feel afraid and threatened. We can trust God to help us when we are afraid and overwhelmed. We can simply say with honesty, “God. I am afraid and I need Your help.” When we do that, we are able to recognize that God is with us and we can rest in the certainty of Who God is and how much He loves us. God soothes us and holds us close when our hearts and minds are gripped by fear. Instead of allowing fear to take over, we can ask God to take over. This is what we do when we pray. We ask God to move into our situations and to guide us because we have learned that we can trust Him. We can bring our fears to God tomorrow August 10th when we have our weekly WEDNESDAY PRAYER TOGETHER at 1 pm. If you do not currently have anything in particular that is causing you to feel afraid, you can pray for others whom you know, who are afraid.
Looking to God and trusting Him to help us when we are afraid, Pastor Lola
Our God Who is for us a safe Refuge and a Fortress of protection, we come to You now grateful that we can turn to You whenever we are afraid. Sometimes we are told not to be afraid, but that does not dispel our fears. It is only as we call out to You for help and really believe that You can and will help us that we can feel our fears subsiding. We come now to dwell in the shelter of You, the Most High. You are above all others and so we can be confident placing our confidence in You. We do want to dwell with You. We want to stay in the shadow of You the Almighty. This is the place we want to be when fears threaten to drown out Your Voice. Help us our God to listen attentively for You when we are afraid. Instead of being overwhelmed by fear, we pray to be overwhelmed by Your compassion and loving care for us. Please give us hearts to see the way that fear is affecting people around us. We know that sometimes people do find it hard to admit that they are afraid. We trust You for words that will assure others that they can be honest about their fears. Use our words, we pray, to convey to people that they can trust You. For the times that we are dealing with unresolved problems that cause both frustration and fear, we want to remember to release everything to You. We recall the peace that Jesus Your Son promises. We long to dwell in a place of peace rather than having troubled hearts and rising fear. We know our God that there is more for us to learn and discover about trusting You when we are afraid. As we are learning these lessons of trust, we pray that we will grow closer with you and that we will recognize more and more how essential it is to belong to You and to know the fullness of Your sufficiency. Please clear our misconceptions both about fear and trust. And our loving God when we do trust You and experience You as our Refuge and Fortress, we do not want for a moment to pretend that we battled fear on our own. The only hope we have is to place our trust in You. We again confirm that we are trusting in You and looking actively for the ways that You will help us. Thank You God for the ways You are already moving to answer these prayers as You accurately recognize how much we need You! We pray to also keep accurately recognizing how much we need You. In Jesus’ Name. AMEN