Saturday Spiritual Uplift - Faith, Not Fear

Faith, Not Fear

He renews my strength.
 He guides me along right paths,
bringing honor to his name.

Even when I walk
through the darkest valley, 
I will not be afraid,
for you are close beside me. Your rod and your staff
 protect and comfort me.

(NLT Psalm 23:3-4)

Remember when you were a child and you couldn’t sleep, because someone had told you a scary story or you had watched a frightening movie?  Or perhaps you have a little one in your house who wants you to repeatedly check for the monster under the bed or open the closet door to prove no horrible creature lurks there, waiting to jump out and devour them.

When I was a little girl, we had a Saturday afternoon program in the Detroit area, which played mostly old black and white horror movies—mild by today’s standards, but enough to fuel the imagination. I was probably nine or ten when I was allowed to start watching them. Back then vampires were villains that sucked the life out of you, leaving you doomed to the same evil form. 

To make matters worse, my upstairs bedroom had the door leading to the dust porch. What a convenient place for a ghoul to sneak in, despite Mom locking both the sturdy storm and inside doors. I was convinced that something would vaporize through the cracks around the frame! And I was sure, werewolves, or whatever else might lurk in the dark were athletic enough to climb up onto the porch and break the door down. I hid under the covers, so I couldn’t see shadows in the darkened room around me or anything that might think moved. I clung to my cross necklace or a rosary to protect myself, yet those were just symbols I held onto. 

How much greater is the real power of the One who overcame the cross and rose from the dead. Jesus Christ is here with us through each of life’s difficulties. As the shepherd would use the rod to protect the sheep from their predators or the staff’s crooked end to pull a sheep out of harm’s way, He is with His sheep today. One word from Him can fell our enemies. We can’t see what happens in the spiritual realm, but He is there.

We meet “darkest valleys” throughout our lives. Times when illness plagues us or returns when least expected, husbands or wives fall short of their wedding vows, friends hurt us deeply, someone we love is injured or dies. The car accident, house fire, job loss, deep disappointment and stress . . . on and on, life seems at times filled with these dark valley moments.

Jesus is always there with us, even when we can’t feel His presence. We need to turn our eyes toward Him and follow Him through the valley until we emerge out of it, whether here on earth or in His heavenly presence. These are times we can look back and often better see how the Lord worked in our lives.

While I can look back and smile at the thought of myself cowering under the blankets, because of imaginary monsters, I can have joy in the amazing things He has done in the past and will surely continue to do in the future. We can move forward with great confidence, knowing that the Good Shepherd watches over and protects us through whatever dark valley we face.

Heavenly Father, help us to remember you are with us always and to have the faith to continually trust in You. Amen.

Saturday Spiritual Uplift

Where Were You, Lord?

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. (Heb. 11:1, NLT)

As I was driving to an appointment (and as usual hadn’t left myself enough extra time), I missed my turn. I thought the sign was telling me that the turn was for 12 Mile Road, but that I was still on M-5 North. Unfortunately, the sign was showing me that I needed to turn off of I-96 at that point to take M-5 northward. Instead of being at the medical facility in West Bloomfield, I ended up in Northville, basically in the opposite direction. Once I took the turn around and was eventually back on the right road, I was able to find office building. I was quite late and fully prepared to reschedule and head home, but they were gracious enough to still accommodate me. 

Going home, I hit rush hour traffic and took quite awhile to return. I suppose the whole thing only took me an extra half hour, but the anxiety and stress made my little trip seem worse. I returned safely home and I know the Lord was with me the whole time. He told His disciples He would go with them to the ends of the earth! But He allowed me that little detour. Things didn’t go perfectly even though He was there. If anything, it was simply a consequence of my poor planning.

Every day, believers are going through much more difficult detours in life. Unexpected serious illness takes hold, marriages fail, jobs are lost, wayward children leave families behind and terrible accidents happen. These are the things that test our faith.

When Lazarus had died, his sister, Martha, said to Jesus when he arrived on the scene, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” How honest Martha was with Jesus! And if I’m honest there are many times that I am asking that question. For example, when my husband fell off the roof 15 years ago I wondered why He allowed that to happen. After each of my four miscarriages I wondered why He allowed each baby to die in the womb when each of them were so loved and wanted.

When I ask why, I’m really asking the Lord where He was when that happened, because if He’d been doing what I wanted, those bad things wouldn’t have happened. But get this, it’s what I wanted. I wasn’t asking what He wanted to do in my life through those things at first. That took a while longer.

A little later, when Jesus asked for the stone to be removed from Lazarus’ grave, Martha complained that since her brother had been buried four days before, it would smell pretty awful. Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” Jesus called Lazarus forth from the tomb and Martha had her happy ending regarding Lazarus, right then and there.

For us it isn’t always so immediate. We need to trust even when we don’t have the instant results we want and believe that the Lord is here working on the results He wants to see in our lives. As we come to know Him better and center on His presence more fully, we’ll begin to want what He wants in our lives, which is the best for us.

Father, please teach us to desire You and Your will most of all, to know You are working out your perfect plan, despite how it may look to us today. Please give us the gift of faith that we might trust You more fully. Amen.