Love Casts Out Fear

This week's post comes from Salina at State of the Heart

Psalm 29:11
"The Lord will give strength to His people; The Lord will bless His people with peace." NKJV

Fear has the tendency to sweep in, curl around inside your body, and burrow deep into your mind. It takes over all normal thought processes and leaves you with a feeling so strong it can only be described as panic. This attack continues until you reach a point where you're sure your heart is going to explode, your legs might fall out from under you, and breathing no longer becomes quite so automatic.

King David was in the midst of these feelings when he wrote Psalm 55." My heart beats violently within me; the horrors of death overcome me. Fear and panic overpower me; terror overwhelms me. I say, "I wish I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and settle in a safe place! Look, I will escape to a distant place; I will stay in the wilderness. I will hurry off to a place that is safe from the strong wind and the gale." (55:3-8).

There are times when I understand exactly how David felt. I too would like to run away from my fears; I'd like to run so fast and so far that eventually I would outrun everything that troubles me. I've reached a point in my life though where I know fear can take such a hold of the body that if left unchecked it will carve away at your soul as though it was a cancerous growth. The more you try to run from it, the stronger that hold becomes, until eventually it will eat through every living cell in your body.

I can’t explain why fear leaves us feeling so powerless, but I guess it's one of the negative consequences of allowing fear into our lives; we start out believing we have the ability to control what happens to us, but in actuality we don't. There is only one way to control our fears. When David continued writing his Psalms, I believe that by chapter fifty six, verse eleven he discovered the way to alleviate this pain and fear. He wrote, "In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 56:11)

I keep replaying that verse in my head and every time I come to the part that says "what can man do to me" I picture whatever problem I’m facing at the time and read it as "I will not be afraid. What can ____________do to me?" From personal experience I know how paralyzingly fear can be, but God has the cure to remove it. I don't have to fear anyone or anything, there is nothing too big for God to handle, there is nothing He doesn't understand, and He will continue to grant me all the strength and peace I need to get through each and every problem I face. I’m so thankful to have "the peace of God that surpasses all understanding to guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:7)

Please pray with me:
Dear Lord;
We all experience fear at different times in our lives, but You tell us do not fear for You will bless us with peace, the kind of peace that surpasses our understanding. We may not know what the future holds, but we do know that whatever may come You will be there to give us the strength to get through it, and the ability to face it without fear.
Amen