[304 words]
Are you afraid of anything? As a child, I was scared of a monster under my bed. One afternoon my family was working outside, it was cold and I was wearing a winter coat and boots. As it was getting dark outside my parents told me to go inside and get ready for bed. So, I did. But I was so afraid that the monster under my bed was going to get me. I ran into my room and gracefully leaped into my bed so as not to wake the monster under my bed, with my winter coat and boots still on. I then hid under my blankets, protected from the monster two feet below me. Even though I was hot and sweating, I never took my coat and boots off; my fear was greater. I fell asleep that way to the dismay of my mother, who did not understand my reasoning the next morning.
You know fear can do strange things to people. Fear of giants and lack of faith in the Lord caused the Israelites to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. But as they approached the land to enter it a second time, 40 years later. Moses encouraged them with these words in Deut. 1:21, “See, the LORD your God has set the land before you. Go up, take possession, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has told you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
Moses even ends the book of Deuteronomy with these same words, “The Lord… will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed” (31:8). Those words of encouragement apply to us as well. May we trust in the Lord and not in our fears. Fear only stops us from having what the Lord wants to bless us with.
Mark T. Tonkery
Norval Park church of Christ
Zanesville, OH