We fear so many things - failure, not being enough, having enough. We fear our "to do" list mounting, our own inadequacy, the opinions of others, the unknown, pain, strife, offending others, consequences, getting stuck, getting free. We fear being alone, forgotten, unknown, and we fear being known, vulnerable, exposed. We're afraid to live and afraid to die. We fear what may be, what won't be, what is and may not change or will change.
Every day we live with fear - fight it or succumb to it - often not even realizing we're living out of fear in it's many forms: anxiety, worry, negativity, isolation, distrust and assumptions. More often than not, this fear controls our behaviors, our interactions and reactions. We spend much effort guarding ourselves against unknowns, trying to keep our fears from becoming reality.
"Five hundred years ago, Michel de Montaigne said: "My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened." Now there's a study that proves it. This study looked into how many of our imagined calamities never materialize. In this study, subjects were asked to write down their worries over an extended period of time and then identify which of their imagined misfortunes did not actually happen. Lo and behold, it turns out that 85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened, and with the 15 percent that did happen, 79 percent of subjects discovered either they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning. This means that 97 percent of what you worry over is not much more than a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions." (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/85-of-what-we-worry-about_n_8028368)
But what about when life does leave you crushed? What about when you feel like you're crying out from the ends of the earth - alone, far away from any help, hope or listening ear? What about when heart fails and you're flat on your face drowning and the stuff of earth is so real and raw and overwhelming? What then? What to do when what you fear is there, washing over you, wave after wave like Job.... then, lead me to the Rock that is HIGHER. (Ps 61) The inheritance of those who fear the name of the Lord: a Rock. But not just any rock. A Rock that is higher than myself and any troubles I may ever face. A Rock of inestimable worth and beauty. An anchor. A firm foundation. Something to cling to, hope in, draw strength from that CANNOT be moved. A Rock that is not just a flat or jagged piece, leaving me exposed to all the elements, but an impenetrable fortress, a refuge that surrounds, protects, comforts, shields, lifts one up above the wind and waves and conquers fears because He is so much greater and fearing Him means He is ours and we are His and we are held by Almighty God who spoke and worlds spun into order, who said the word and planets filled empty voids and rotated perfectly in space and NOTHING gets past Him and no one can overtake Him. And when it feels as though life has dropped us off at the ends of the earth far away from ear shot - He is there; He hears. For in the most desolate places, the depths, the desert ends, even there He is, His love surrounds. And in this realization, when this truth sinks and absorbs, it takes the breath away with wonder, with confidence not in ourselves but in Him, it causes all other fears to get swallowed up in the knowledge that there is nothing within our human experience that He is not greater than, that He has not overcome and more than that- as author of creation - to Him all things are equal in their small-ness. That the only thing out there worth fearing is Him, and when we do, He is FOR US and so all this AUTHORITY, ABILITY, ACTION, is on our side and for our good. WOW! Not only is he higher than all those waves and can shelter us from them, but He can SPEAK and the WORD made FLESH can tell those waves to be still and cause us to walk in AUTHORITY over them, overcoming the very thing we feared, triumphing over it when we realize that we are LOVED by the only ONE who is ABOVE ALL.
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