For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1:7)
A visit from Therapets helped make John's day a little brighter.
Fears – we all have them in one form or another. Some people are afraid of heights, others are afraid of storms, or various other things. I happen to have an unreasonable fear of spiders (even the non-poisonous ones). Today, however, I am focusing upon the fears I call “what ifs”—those things that cross our minds, but rarely happen.
As many of you know, my husband underwent surgery to remove some polyps in his colon. (I am happy to say the pathology report showed they were completely benign.) The surgeon expected this; however, with his history of cancer we were delighted to learn the good news.
I spent much of last week visiting my husband in the hospital, going each morning before work. However, on Saturday morning, I had to run an errand before visiting and the doctors made their rounds before I arrived.
When I spoke to my husband by phone, he told me one of the doctors said something about his bone marrow not being completely normal. You can imagine that sent up a red flag and I thought of cancer. After my initial worries, I reasoned that they had not done a bone marrow biopsy and if they thought there were any indications of cancer they would have called for an oncology consult. God, he is in your hands. Whatever it is it did not come as a surprise to you. Still, throughout the day, those “what ifs” kept crossing my mind.
You see, the devil likes to prey on our fears. If he can get us to focus on them and not the truth of God’s word, he wins.
God does not give us a spirit of fear. He gave us power, love, and self-control. When Satan comes knocking (and he will), scripture tells us to resist him and he will flee. (James 4:7).
How do we resist him? I believe the best way is to follow Jesus’ example when He was tempted in the wilderness by quoting scripture. Focusing upon God’s word causes our fears, our doubts, our “what ifs” to diminish.
Whatever you are facing, turn to Jesus and His word. There you will find comfort to face every situation in life.
Oh, and the comment about the bone marrow? Because my husband had a bone marrow transplant eighteen years ago, the doctor said the bone marrow never functions at 100%. A chest x-ray showed early signs of possible pneumonia, so they began giving him antibiotics proactively. I’m thankful this is one “what if” that didn’t happen.
