When I am afraid, I will trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me? Psalm 56:3-4
Hey there!
This week I'm going to share an experience that happened not too long ago. To be more specific, around three hours ago. Before I dive in I wanted to announce that I will be starting a new series. It will last 6 weeks, and we're already in the second week. We kicked off the series with "Lord give me patience" and are continuing this week with "Lord give me courage" without further ado let's unpack this weeks verse.
Psalm 56:3-4 has been on my heart very recently. Specifically, because I've spent the last three days learning how to snowboard. Coming from a girl who has skied for 9 years, you would think I'd be okay, or at least I did. I was wrong. I'm pretty sure I've fallen more in the last three days than I did while learning to walk. Today was my first day without a lesson. This resulted in my dad throwing me on the gondola, and claiming the easiest runs were at the top of the mountain.
If you want to find out the result of this, read next weeks post "Lord give me strength", but in the meantime, I'm going to jump ahead to where our verse applies. After I somehow survived 4 runs, we began to head towards the base. Usually, we would keep going, but we knew that a storm was heading in. So we hopped on the lift that would bring us to a run that would lead to the gondola, it's a confusing process, I just follow my dad. Only to find that the storm had arrived. Wind whipping the snow in our faces, barely ten degrees, and my third-day riding was not a good combination.
So, after sitting down to strap in I realized, "I can't even see my dad and he's fifteen feet in front of me." This among the weather struck fear into my so-called "fearless" soul. I sat there unable to move because all I could think about was how I couldn't see where I was going. Hundreds of scenarios ran through my head most of which ended with me injured on the summit of the mountain.
Nothing could stop me from being scared, and I had no other option except for asking God to give me courage. So there on the side of the mountain, I prayed, "Lord give me the courage to get down this mountain, I know that there's no other way to get down so please make me brave." Every time the wind would cause a whiteout I would pray the same thing. Over the following hour, we made it to the gondola where we could ride down to the base.
I like to act as if I don't have any fears, but in reality, I have many. Sin has made all of us into fearful people. We forget that God created many of the things we fear, but sin made them into objects we deem worthy of our attention. When we are afraid of something we are giving the negative aspects of something more attention than it deserves. This goes for many common fears.
Fear of what others think, God made all people, and their thoughts don't hold any power unless you give them power. Fear of thunderstorms, God made the clouds and the rain so that our Earth could thrive. Fear of any animal, God created them for us, they were not created to harm us. All of these fears are valid. What other people think of you matters because of judgment. Thunderstorms are scary because of the negative connotation of danger with storms. Animals can be scary, they have been mistreated and become aggressive.
Often times when we are afraid we want to run to everything except for God. That's what I do almost every time. Eventually, we run out of options, and we think we're stuck, but we're not. God is ready to protect us from anything that may scare us. If you fear rejection, He says you are worthy. If you fear bad weather, He has will make you brave. If you fear the future, He already has it planned for you. If you are so paralyzed by this fear that grips you like chains, He breaks every chain.
It doesn't matter what you fear. No matter how big it may be, God is bigger, stronger, and better. Through Him you can gain the patience you need to reflect who your God is, the courage you need to persevere, the strength you need to get back up, the hope you need to continue on throughout your life, a serving heart that is honoring to Him, and the willingness you need to act on all of the above. You can do all things through Him. Anytime you let fear hold you back from something, you're gratifying Satan's desires.
Satan doesn't want you to have fun with your friends so he will throw judgment and mental health struggles at you. He doesn't want you to be happy with who you are so he will make sure you're not the best and destroy your body image. He doesn't want you to lean on God so he will do everything in his power to make sure you believe God makes bad things happen. He will try to make fear creep into every part of your life. The only thing that can stop him is God.
This week I pray that you identify your fears. Realize that they do not define you and they are not worthy of all the time and effort that you put into avoiding them. Your fears can be conquered by God. Put all your trust in Him to protect you, and He will be your shield. I pray that God gives you the courage to fight against them and not run scared.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. Joshua 1:9
Praying,
Addison Wimbish
When I first read this, I was about to go "People can ski and snowboard in Texas? *surprised Canadian person noises*". But then I realized that would be a fairly biased thing to say, given I don't know this place yet like...at all (and nothing stops people from just going up north to do winter sports).
From experience, being afraid at least when skiing or snowboarding actually ends up with you being more likely to get injured. Science has shown that the human brain cannot function well under high amounts of fear, meaning if you go down any slope being so afraid (and in my view, basically unready), you'll wipe out easier than in other situations cause you can't think…