Today I was visiting with a client when the subject of fear came up. Fear of losing a job, losing a home, losing a child...fear is something that we all deal with from time to time, if not more.
Doing what I could to ease the worry of my client and offer a little consolation to a worried heart, I began to explain how Jesus' disciples had dealt with fear during a very popular story from the Bible that details a boat full of worried folks that were stuck in a storm. The boat forcefully rocked from side to side to the point that the passengers thought they would die. It was then that they cried out to Jesus to come and save them and once they did, the fear had left them.
The fear was gone.
I barely blinked when the tears began to fall down my face. Have you ever been able to give someone sound advice yet it was hard for you to hear it yourself? That is the only way I know how to describe it. The truth was that I was hearing my own words as I realized that my family had been riding some pretty rough waves since my husband was having a tough time finding a job. The uncertainty of so much weighs heavy in times of waiting and can manifest in a very ugly way, and the financial restraint seems to touch so many different areas of life. November birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, December birthdays... The weight can be crushing. But God has a plan, and I trust Him.
As I attempted to wipe the tears away conspicously, I apologized to my client and explained that I truly understand what it means to fear and how sometimes I felt like I was in a boat, too; how I had to ask Jesus every day to save me. That's when she asked me, "So why are you smiling?"
Was I? Had I managed to overlook the fact that in the midst of the storm, Jesus had given me a reason to smile?
I remembered a verse from the Bible that I cling to that explains how Jesus is able to give me a peace that is different that the kind of peace that the world gives; how it gives me a reason to smile despite the challenges of life. I told her that I think that my smile came from knowing that no matter what life brings my way, whatever ups and downs I may experience, my joy comes from an overflowing well of living water that my Savior refills each day so that I am filled with Him and not with the circumstances life.
Dear Father,
Someone reading this is hurting. They need you. Father, if they don't know you, I pray you would allow them to see that there is nothing that they can do to change your love for them. It is not anything that they can earn, but rather that you give to them freely not because of who they are, but because of who you are. And for the person who is reading this who is riding the boat of life, being rocked by the winds and waves of life: I pray that you would be the calm to their storm. Jesus, you said that the world would give us troubles, but you also promised that you would never leave us. Renew in us a hopeful spirit so that we can smile through the tears. Renew our strength, and thank you for allowing us to leave our cares at the foot of the cross where you pay for them daily.
Amen.
Isaiah 40:31
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