I Am Sometimes Afraid, Yet...

I Am Sometimes Afraid, Yet...

Amid heightened fears in the public consciousness and calls for social distance, I encourage you to use these short meditations and prayer points as a resource to deepen our faith in this trying time and to unify us in prayer for our community, nation and world.

In Psalm 56 David reflects, "My enemies go about hounding me daily, for there are many who fight against me, O Most High.  Nevertheless, though I am sometimes afraid, yet I put my trust in you."

If you read the daily news updates on the progression of the COVID-19 pandemic, David's sentiment feels very familiar, from officials using war-time language about our fight against this viral enemy, to the feeling of being daily "hounded" by some new change that makes today feel more complicated than yesterday.  In light of that kind of oppression, I appreciate David's honesty. 

Sometimes I am afraid.  

Too often we as Christians equate anxiety with faithlessness.  That is not the biblical pattern we see here though, is it?  David acknowledges his fears and anxieties.  But like any thought or feeling, to register fear or to feel anxious is not sin or faithless in and of itself.  What we do with our thoughts and feelings is what counts.  David feels fear, but what does he do with it?  "Nevertheless, though I am sometimes afraid, yet I put my trust in you."   

When our fears and anxieties well up within us, we are faced with a choice: give ground to that "enemy" or choose to trust.  So much is out of our control right now.  But we believe in a God who is greater.  The spiritual battlefield we find ourselves on is that moment by moment choice to trust or give in to our fears.

Increase, O God, the spirit of neighborliness among us, that in peril we may uphold one another, in suffering tend to one another, and in homelessness, loneliness, or exile befriend one another.  Grant us brave and enduring hearts that we may strengthen one another, until the disciplines and testing of these days are ended, and you again give peace in our time; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.