Trust Overcomes Fear

It leaves its marks

On your body

And on your soul

It causes your heart

To thrash & throb

To beat uncontrollably

It sets a fog in

Settling on your mind

Making you lost

It’s unrelenting, pushy,

And loud.

Fear does not keep itself hidden well

It only causes the soul to hide in the dark.

            Fear is a daily battle. Sometimes I am afraid of making a left turn when it says to yield to oncoming traffic. Other times I am afraid of the future.  Fear is gripping, and it comes in many forms. It can hold you dead in your tracks. I get stuck often. Stuck in a turn lane, and stuck on negative thoughts.

            I wrecked my car this summer. It was my fault and I was really embarrassed. Every day I remember the look on the woman’s face in the other vehicle, and every day I am afraid of seeing it again on someone else’s face. It wasn’t the wreck that started my fear of the road though, it was always there. The wreck only further provoked my worst thoughts.

            In the same way, I have always been scared of what’s ahead of me. I hate it when I don’t have a plan, or when I am late. I like to know what is coming a few steps in advance.

            I have unrelenting fear of what’s ahead that I am unable to see. I am learning that God doesn’t want me to see every step before it comes, but rather, He wants me to see Him. I need to see Him and seek Him before anything else. It is a tough lesson to learn. Letting God step in and shake your life is scary. He may do things and change things you never wanted touched. He may take you to places you never expected to be.

            That’s where I’m at. I am somewhere I never thought I would ever see. This place has my heart chained with fear. Sometimes I am so scared that I shake, and the rattling of my heavy chains echo in my day to day life. These fears cause me to stumble and fall and get stuck where I don’t need to be stuck. They cause me grief and keep me locked up. But no matter how hard I am shaking or how many tears drip off my cheeks; God is more unrelenting than my fear. He holds tighter than any scary thought that crosses my mind. He can see clearer than my foggy brain can comprehend. And He’s teaching me to trust him.

            Trust. Trust overcomes fear. Trust in God is the only way to escape the chains fear traps you in. Trust. Its easier said than done. But if learning to trust God means escaping the prison of fear, God do what you will.

            Teach me to let go of the things I no longer need to hold on to. Teach me to breathe. Teach me to love you more every single day. Keep teaching me to trust even if I am kicking and screaming the whole way.

            Finding peace in Him is worth more than a million days of my own careful planning. Trusting Him means driving to places I have never driven to, even though I may not know what lane to be in at every single turn, and even though it terrifies me. Trusting Him means letting go of my dreams, and letting Him build new ones in me.

Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; Your rod and your staff they comfort me”.