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Do Not Fear!

Was that a knock on my front door?? What time is it??? ...well past 12 Midnight! Fear gripped my heart, my body, my mind and my soul! Be still! Listen! ..... nothing .... go back to sleep. See, I had fallen asleep on my couch watching TV - not an unusual thing for me to do. I love taking naps before I go to bed. (...don't you?) .... Oh no! What was that? There it was again! Definitely a knock on my front door .... I think! .... definitely well past midnight! Listen! Concentrate! Sit up ever so casually - and as I do, I remember that IF someone is just outside of my front door, well past midnight, knocking - they can see me "casually" sitting up on my couch in the living room directly across from the foyer where the front door is with someone behind the front door, knocking, well past midnight, because that very door has two long windows running beside it. ....nah! Just my imagination ...surely! So I pull myself together and with all the courage I can muster I bravely (stupidly!) stand up and go to the front door to peer out one of those windows, and almost when I have my nose to that window, I am jolted full awake as I can make out in the dark a figure - and it was one of a man!...with a full head of hair that seemed to be sticking straight up all over (...had I scared him?). You know, a thousand thoughts go through your mind as you're trying to escape, and one of those thoughts is that maybe it was one of my son's friends playing a joke (not funny!), so instead of using my common sense (which totally leaves at a time like this) and going to wake up my husband, I go to my son's room yelling to him to wake up - NOW! - as one of HIS friends was out there knocking, on our front door, well past midnight! ...when ....all of a sudden it dawned on me that the behind-the-front-door figure knew my name. He was calling.... "...Kelli ...Kelli ..." ... What in the world?!! So, I started slowly - SLOWLY - creeping back to the front door, turning on ALL the lights as I did, only to see my nephew standing there ...at the front door ...well past midnight ... knocking! You see, he was supposed to spend the night at my house that night and had left his key somewhere else. I wanted to knock him out and hug him all at the same time. Oh, and if you're wondering about the hair - it was, in fact, sticking straight up all over. He had let some girl braid his hair into many, many braids a few days before (from the top of his very scalp down! Owww!), and it finally had given him one headache too many so he had taken them all out! Thus, the hair! Thus, my almost heart attack!

Have you ever been that full of fear, that scared, before? You know, although it is maybe not always that theatrical, anything that scares the wits or life out of us is most certainly always dramatic! It may be a situation, or involve a person or persons, or be an illness, an injury, money even, just any number of things, in fact, but when we are afraid, it can always be a heart-altering moment.

Acrostic:

 

F - FRIGHTENED!

And fearfully so! Frozen in place, many times; certainly 'fraid (short for AFRAID) with many a frayed nerve. My pastor once gave us a good basic psychological attitude definition of FEAR - "inner flight from that which threatens one's life or well-being whether real or imagined."

Yet, the Bible says in this way, "DO NOT FEAR!"

Deuteronomy 31:6, 8 "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you." * "And the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear, or be dismayed."

Isaiah 12:2 "Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord God is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation."

Isaiah 41:13 "For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, who says to you, 'Do not fear, I will help you.' " (Take a look also at Isaiah 43:1-7.)

 

E - EEEEKKK! we cry!

Well, maybe it is more like a SCREAM - for dear life, that is!

Yet the Bible says in this way, "DO NOT FEAR"

Lamentations 3:19-26 "Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassion's never fail. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. 'The Lord is my portion,' says my soul, 'Therefore I have hope in Him.' The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord."

 

A - ANSWERS! and we want them NOW!

HELP! Yet again the Bible says in this way, "DO NOT FEAR"

Psalm 4:8 "In peace I will both lie down and sleep, for Thou alone, O Lord, does make me dwell in safety."

Psalm 121 "I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; from whence shall my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not smite you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forever."

 

R - REELING! beyond reason, we are!

Yet - you know it - the Bible says in this way, "DO NOT FEAR"

Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread?"

Psalm 56:4 "In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?"

Psalm 118:6 "The Lord is for me; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"

Proverbs 29:25 "The fear of man brings a snare, but he who trusts in the Lord will be exalted."

 

FEAR! Some time ago, I received an E-Mail from a friend of a story involving an ultimate "Fear Factor" shared by a Robert H. Schuller, and I now share it with you * "I read recently the documented story of a man who thought he was accidentally trapped inside a refrigerated railroad car. He became frantic, pounding on the door and screaming, but nobody heard him. He knew that no human being could survive in that kind of an environment so he settled into a corner of the car and began to scrawl his last thoughts on the wall. 'I am becoming very cold. I do not have long to live anymore. I can tell that death is coming close to me. I can feel it very near. These may well be my last words.' And they were! When the refrigerator car door was opened, they found the man dead. But, here's what's so amazing. The door was not locked. The refrigeration unit had not been working for a month. There was still enough oxygen in the railroad car to sustain life and the lowest temperature during the man's entrapment was 58 degrees. He did not die of cold. He did not die of suffocation. Only one thing killed him. FEAR!! That fear, along with the illusion that he was freezing inside the railroad car! Psychologists are beginning to pay attention to this phenomenon. Centuries ago, God revealed to us that 'As one thinks in his heart, so is he!' " [See Proverbs 23:7] WOW!!

Yet there is a FEAR that the Bible says we should have! Yep! A reverent fear of the Lord, our God Almighty!

Proverbs 1:7 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."

Proverbs 10:27 "The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be shortened."

Proverbs 14:26-27 "In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and his children will have refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death."

Proverbs 15:16 "Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and turmoil with it."

Proverbs 19:23 "The fear of the Lord leads to life, so that one may sleep satisfied, untouched by evil."

Sounds like we need a little "fear of God" which apparently only works for our very own benefit! Our God is like that, isn't He?! Always looking out for us! Thank you, Lord!

 

Fleeing! Fleeing! Fleeing!

I'm on the run.

Panic! Panic! Panic!

This is not at all fun!

Frightened! Frightened! Frightened!

My soul is gripped.

Scared! Scared! Scared!

My courage is stripped.

Wait! Wait! Wait!

What is that I see?

Help! Help! Help!

Coming after me!

Calm! Calm! Calm!

I feel it surround me now.

Peace! Peace! Peace!

Oh, Lord, how great art Thou! Have "NO FEAR"!

 

... Blessings !!

Amen? AMEN!

Kelli