When We Are Afraid
When I was thinking about what to write to you today, I thought about sharing this verse from Psalm 56. During days with so much fear, the verse seems especially appropriate.
When I went to the passage, I started reading verses before and after it. I wrote recently about the reality that people in the public eye have families who love them and who hurt when other people malign their loved ones. King David was a person in the public eye. This passage tells how he felt when he was the person maligned. Surely many people exactly the same way he did.
I once met a homeschooling mama who was about 40 years old. She had taken good care of her health and exercised regularly. However, a few months before she had been in the middle of an ugly conflict in a volunteer organization. When I met this mama, she was recovering from a heart attack. She told me that a person involved in her medical care told her that he believed that stress was the cause of her heart attack.
May we have hearts of compassion for everyone. Praise God that He is trustworthy when we are afraid. We can depend on Him and we can train our children to depend on Him.
Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me;
Fighting all day long he oppresses me.
My foes have trampled upon me all day long,
For they are many who fight proudly against me.
When I am afraid,
I will put my trust in You.
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?
All day long they distort my words;
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
They attack, they lurk,
They watch my steps,
As they have waited to take my life.
Psalm 56:1-7