Holding me up

I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do

not fear; I will help you. —Isaiah 41:13 After I no longer went on family road trips with my parents, it became a rare occasion to visit my grandparents who lived hundreds of miles away from us. So one year, I decided to fly to visit them in the small town of Land O’Lakes, Wisconsin, for a long weekend. As we drove to the airport for my return flight, Grandma, who had never flown, began to express her fears to me: “That was such a small plane you flew on.… There’s nothing really holding you up there, is there? . . . I would be so afraid to go up that high.”

By the time I boarded the small aircraft, I was as fearful as the first time I had flown. What exactly is holding up this plane, anyway? Irrational fears, or even legitimate ones, don’t need to terrify us. David lived as a fugitive, afraid of King Saul who relentlessly pursued him because he was jealous of David’s popularity with the people. David found true solace and comfort only in his relationship with God. In Psalm 34 he wrote: “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears” (v. 4).

Our Father in heaven is all-wise and all-loving. When fear starts to overwhelm us, we need to stop and remember that He is our God and He will always hold us up. – Cindy Hess Kasper

My fears sometimes overwhelm me, Father. Yet I know that You are here with me. May Your perfect love cast out my fear and still my troubled heart! READ: Psalm 34:1-7 When we believe that God is good, we can learn to release our fears. Bible in a Year: Proverbs 8–9 and 2 Corinthians 3