Whom Shall I Fear

The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? 
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident. Psalm 27:1-3

As my son’s first deployment neared its end, I was shocked that instead of getting less fearful, I became more afraid. I’d learned early in his tour of duty not to watch television. Like any military mom, I realized all the news was bad, and rarely completely accurate.

But no matter how I avoided the media, everywhere I turned the news was tragic. Everyone seemed to be reporting about another member of the military who’d been killed—and they all were only days away from coming home.

I tried to get my mind off all the horrible possibilities by planning his homecoming. I planned menus filled with his favorite meals, but nothing helped, nothing took my mind off of what-if. The more I tried to dig myself out of the pit, the deeper I got.

Then, as I read this Scripture, it hit me what I was doing wrong. I was focusing on everything and everyone except God. I was still trying to do everything in my power to fix things. When would I ever learn? 

Don’t get me wrong, it does get harder to keep the fear at bay when our soldier’s homecoming gets nearer. Harder—but not impossible.

God doesn’t relax his care and covering because our loved one is almost safe. He never relaxes His vigilance over His children. We can have confidence that God is always on guard and I have no reason to fear.