“But let all who take refuge in you be glad; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may rejoice in you.” Psalm 5:11
Fret and frown; toss and turn; worry. That’s what we do when we are afraid, confused, or when we are unsure. At times like these we need protection; not from the outside world, but from the inside world. We need protection from our own thoughts, from ourselves!
When we fear, all rational reasoning stops. Fear is a lack of trust, a lack of courage, a lack of control. When we act out of our fear, we cannot trust the outcome. Fear, worry, and anxiety are not the same as cautiousness, deliberateness, or confidence. Fear, and its cousins, are the enemy. They make us act in hurried desperation. What good can then come?
In circumstances out of our control, where we lose our control, or where we freeze in trepidation and fear, we need a life-line. We need something or someone to pull us back to security, to the truth. The February 10 entry of “God Calling” (A.J. Russell) reads, “The life-line, the line of rescue, is the line from the soul to God, faith and power. It is a strong line, and no soul can be overwhelmed who is linked to Me by it. Trust, trust, trust. Never be afraid.”
The life-line is ever there, but if you are drowning how do you grab and hang on to it? The February 10 entry in a different daily devotional, “Daily Word” reads, “Trusting that God in me is greater than the world around me, I enfold myself in thoughts of God’s continual presence. I claim divine protection from my own fearful thoughts, setting them aside the moment they reach my awareness.”
I see three key points within these two quotes. The first is awareness. We must become aware of our thought processes and learn to recognize when they turn to irrational fear and anxiety, in other words, when our thoughts turn against us. Remember, fear is the enemy. Awareness is the key to the life-line, the line of rescue. When we become aware, we look for and see the life-line, we grab onto it by turning our thoughts to the One who loves us, the One who will protect us from ourselves. We link our soul to Him.
The second key is to claim divine protection. Claim what is already there, what is waiting for us to claim it! Call out to Him; tell Him you need His protection from your thoughts and fears, from yourself. Claim out loud that you are His; claim out loud that He is yours. And, in doing so, we link our soul to Him, to the life-line.
Then the third key is trust. I know I speak of trust in so many of these writings. I do so because too many of us do not trust. We think we do, but we don’t. Trust means to believe in His outcomes, to want His outcomes, and hardest of all, to wait for His outcomes. We say we have faith, that we trust, but when things don’t happen how or when we want them to, we get tired of waiting and take matters into our own hands. We act in desperation, out of fear. Trust, trust, trust! Use trust to drive out your fear. Trust is how we hold onto that life-line, how we keep our soul linked to Him.
“Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away; God never changes. Patience obtains all things. Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.” St Teresa of Avila
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