Fear 4

Today I'm reading Psalm 3. A psalm of David. When he fled from his son Absalom.

1 O LORD, how many are my foes! How many rise up against me! 2 Many are saying of me, "God will not deliver him." 3 But you are a shield around me, O LORD; you bestow glory on me and lift up my head. 4 To the LORD I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. 5 I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. 6 I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side. 7 Arise, O LORD! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked. 8 From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.

Back on April 10, 2011 I blogged about Corrie ten Boom’s acronym for FEAR – “False Expectations Appearing Real.” Still a good commentary on what fear is and how it works in our lives. But I’ve since learned her acronym is frequently accompanied by these:

Frantic Effort to Avoid Reality.

Finding Excuses And Rationalizations.

Failure Expected And Received.

Or… Forget Everything And Run! (clean version).

Too bad we can’t just Forget Everything And Relax.

But the expectation of something going wrong…that is where fear begins. Beforehand. What you expect and what you hold in your thoughts or consciousness can easily become your real experience or your reality. Our thought color everything we experience.

The only difference between fear and excitement is a different expected outcome – one negative and one positive. Think about it. Let’s say you are afraid of public speaking and you’re about to go in front of a group of people to give a presentation. Your palms and forehead are sweaty. You imagine walking up the mic and “SQWEEEAL” the thing feeds back. You picture yourself fumbling and bumbling your way through and looking like a complete idiot to everyone.

Now, imagine you’re the one who LOVES being onstage and has been anxiously awaiting your “time to shine”. You’ve got all of your materials ready. You’re pacing in the hallway like a big game cat. You literally cannot wait to get out there and nail it!

With an negative expectation, the presentation is a thing of dread and terror. With a positive expectation, the presentation is a golden opportunity. Your body reacts the same way in either case, elevated heart rate, adrenal glands kick in. It’s just a matter of which way you perceive the experience that shapes the outcome.

So use your body’s physical reaction to your advantage. Instead of creating paralysis, let it give your energy and flexibility. In the first church I served as a youth pastor I was always very nervous when I had to preach, and I remember the advice given to me by the seasoned choir director. She said, “It’s OK to have butterflies, just get them to fly in formation.”

Here are some other great words by Corrie ten Boom – and if you haven’t ever read her book “The Hiding Place” do it without delay. It’s a classic and should be mandatory for all Christians.

“Worrying is carrying tomorrow's load with today's strength - carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”

“Worry is a cycle of inefficient thoughts whirling around a center of fear.”

“It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts.”

“There are no 'if's' in God's world. And no places that are safer than other places. The center of His will is our only safety - let us pray that we may always know it!”

Let her thought be turned into your prayer for today.

Jeff