By Katy Mariotti
Do Not Be Afraid
“do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7, English Standard Version
Lately there has been a commercial on tv showing a man with poison ivy itching at his painful blisters. Upon seeing this commercial my husband commented on how awful it was when he got poison ivy once. These two things combined made my young son very curious about poison ivy and poison oak, and I taught him the saying “leaves of three, let it be.” Well, I underestimated how many plants that are NOT poison ivy have sets of three leaves. He came to me in tears, convinced that he had found poison ivy growing in our back yard. Since I was busy in the kitchen, I had him go take a picture so we could try to identify the plant.
At his impressionable age, scary thoughts and images stick with him a lot. They’re especially bad at night, when he’s trying to fall asleep and the negative thoughts swim in his head: an image he saw on the news, or fear of natural disasters. I can blame his age, but don’t we adults do the same? We could spend our whole lives worrying about all the scary things there are. Illness, loss of loved ones, car accidents, tragedy, war, drugs, poverty… it’s a never-ending list.
God knows this. There are SO many verses in the Bible that say “do not be afraid.” I like this one from Philippians, though, because it gives us something to do with our fear: pray. Make our requests known the the Lord. And the next verse is my favorite: let the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard our hearts and our minds. God wants us to come to Him and tell Him our fears, and at the same time He promises to guard our hearts and minds with His peace. I especially like the part that says “surpasses all understanding.” With all there is to be scared of in the world, we can still have peace. We don’t have to understand why bad things happen and we don’t have to understand how we can still feel peace despite that. What a precious gift that is!
I pray God’s peace for all of us today!
Copyright Family of Christ Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado
