“When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.”  Psalm 56:3

I was driving the other day and thinking about some news that had taken me by surprise.  About halfway home, I found myself saying out loud, “God, I am afraid!”  It’s not the first time in my life that I have felt fear.  In fact, quite some time ago, God taught me that when we constantly think on or become consumed by our fears (or passions), we are actually forfeiting something better that God had intended for our lives at that very moment.

Once home, I just couldn’t shake the truth that had come from my lips.  For me, I take great comfort from being in God’s Word.  It is where I go when the world feels like it is spinning a bit too fast.  As I finished unloading the car, I grabbed my Bible and came across my new journal.  There, right on the cover, sat Psalm 56:3 in beautiful lettering:  “When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.”  How about that!?!  Right there, in large words, was exactly what I needed to see.  It was being afraid that I was truly grappling with.  So with pen, journal, Bible and phone in hand (my instant dictionary), I sat down to explore this verse some more. It’s almost always a good bet to start with the word that is sticking out to you.

“Afraid” is “feeling fear; filled with apprehension; feeling regret, unhappiness or the like; feeling reluctance, unwillingness, distaste, or the like.”  Dictionary.com/afraid.

Synonyms (just some of them): “anxious, nervous, shocked, suspicious, alarmed, aroused, discouraged, disheartened, dismayed, frozen, in awe, intimidated, spooked, perplexed, stunned, upset, worried, sorry, hesitant, backward, uneager…”  Id.

What also struck me about Psalm 56:3 was the active words that required both my awareness and my effort in response to the feeling of fear.  In this verse, the psalmist highlighted our need to both acknowledge and understand what we are feeling.  But why?  Because by understanding when we are afraid (and all the components of its definition…like regret or unwillingness…who knew those were indicators of fear?), we can implement the next step of Scripture to settle and calm ourselves.  To return our internal thoughts to a state where fear–and its friends: regret, unhappiness, reluctance, unwillingness–do not control our time, decisions or worlds.  A state where we are not running down roads of infinite worse-case scenarios that God never intended for us to venture.  You know, the ones that are unlikely to happen anyway.  So what do we do to take better control over what we are feeling?

“…I will put my trust in You.” (Psalm 56:3, emphasis mine).  Ah, part of the problem lies in recognizing when you are focused on God and when you are not.  When we take the time to acknowledge our feelings, then we can–and its our responsibility deemed from the words “will” and “put”–actively seek to turn our trust back to God rather than staying captive to one of the many synonyms of “afraid”.  When we allow our fear, or feelings of fear, to take over us, we are setting that which is making us afraid above God.  We are not trusting Him with each of our moments that He already knows we are going through.

Each of us, every one of us, will have moments where fear is a part of our lives; let us pray for each other that we will choose to trust more in God.  It is one of the strongest themes you will find, cover to cover in your Bible, and it is well worth living out.

“‘Do not be afraid, you who are highly esteemed,’ he said. ‘Peace!  Be strong now; be strong.'”  Daniel 10:18-19