Freed From Fears

I prayed to the LORD, and he answered me.

He freed me from all my fears.

Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy;

no shadow of shame will darken their faces. Psalm 34:4-5

WE STARTED INTO THIS LIFE of faith in Christ by putting our confidence in him. We told him we wanted to trust him with our lives in this world and in the next. But as we walk down this road of parenting, we continue to come upon new obstacles that prevent us from truly depending on God for everything. Somehow telling him that we trusted him with our eternal future seemed so much easier than trusting him with the struggles we are facing with our child.

As we see harmful patterns taking shape, and when change is slow in coming, fear begins to set in. It starts to alter our perspective, rule our emotions, and twist our responses. We don’t want to be naive about what could happen, but neither do we want to be gripped by fear. So what do we do? What comes naturally to us is to worry, to strategize solutions, to manipulate, to catastrophize. What we must do instead is to take all of our fears and turn them into prayers. We must look to God for help, not just with our child’s situation, but with our own fears that rob us of joy, peace, and rest.

“Let all who are helpless take heart,” says the psalmist in verse 2. Are you feeling helpless? “Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!” says the psalmist in verse 8. Are you finding joy as you rely on the unparalleled strength and unending purposes of your God, or are you swallowing daily doses of misery as you indulge in imagining the worst for the future? “Those who trust in the LORD will lack no good thing,” the psalmist assures us in verse 10. The place of rest and safety, hope, and blessing is found not in indulging all of our fears, but in nurturing our trust in the Lord by meditating on his Word.

Lord, I’m praying to you, asking you to free me from all of my fears about ________’s health and safety, friendships and future. I’m looking to you for help, asking you to transform my countenance from its expression of anxiety to one that radiates joy and confidence in you.