25 Proverbs 29:25: Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.
In my last post, I spoke of fear, somewhat indirectly. I spoke of not having faith. Well, the opposite of not having faith is fear.
In the past few weeks, I have been asking the Lord to show me new things about who He is. So.... He did. I thought that I was ready for what He would show me, and I was, but... You know that word, but; it can be a good word or a bad word. In this case, it was bad. Unknowingly, I began to doubt what He showed me.
So, last night I had a dream. I have often joked that the Lord speaks to me in dreams because He knows that I will be quiet enough to listen. I'll explain the dream in a moment. First, let me share it. In my dream, I was with my grandfather. He had a gun and I wanted to shoot it so badly. He finally let me hold it so that I could shoot it, but when he gave it to me, it seemed to grow five times in size. I couldn't believe the size of it, and it overwhelmed me. Rather than ask him for help to guide me, I got scared. I began to fear. In my fear, I shot earlier that I should have. And although this probably wouldn't happen in real life, the bullet hit the ground a few hundred yards off, ricocheted and hit the top of the barn behind me, then bounced off of that and shot me in the shoulder. It completely immobilized me. It was painful, but just enough so that I couldn't move it. My grandfather immediately came down, made me get it his truck and was prepared to carry me to the hospital. Since we were in the country, it would have been wiser to just go to the hospital in his truck (for speed). But, I was stubborn and wanted to wait for the ambulance. So, we waited and waited and waited. By the time the ambulance finally got there, the lodged bullet was beginning to make my mouth go numb. I got into the back of the ambulance and before they could take me, I had to decide if I wanted to eat fried chicken or a piece of cake. Why would I need that? What's more important, why would that distract me from getting to the hospital?
I woke up, just thinking that it was only a silly, really weird dream. During our church service today, the Lord gave me the meaning of my dream. My grandfather represented God. My request of shooting the gun was reminiscent of my wanting to receive from the Lord. When my request was granted, I got scared. I began to fear. The scripture at the top says that fear of man will prove to be a snare. What does a snare do? It traps you. It immobilizes you so that you can't move and are therefore, useless. In my dream, my fear made the bullet enter into my shoulder and immobilize me. It ensnared me so that I was useless. Rather than being rescued from my fear by God, I chose my own way; which was not the best choice. It took longer, and when what appeared to be the answer finally arrived, it only proved to be more distraction.
Do you let fear immobilize you? Does God want you to receive from him, but do you, like the disciples in the last post, get caught looking at your storm rather than at your Savior? Ask the Lord what has immobilized you. Ask Him what it is that is keeping you from being used. Don't be so focused on the storm that you can't see your Savior. Deuteronomy 4:9 says, "Do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live." Don't forget the miraculous things the Lord has already done for you. Don't let the storm cloud your view of the miracles He has already performed. In doing so, you will lose faith that He can and will do them again.
