A few years ago my husband and I adopted a rescue dog. Her name is Lyla, and she is one of the greatest little additions to the family we could have ever hoped for. She’s adorable, a little derpy, and always makes us smile and laugh. But the thing about Lyla is she’s a very scared dog. We knew when we adopted her that she had a rough start to life. We were taking on a project dog that would need a lot of love and patience to learn that people aren’t so scary, and the world isn’t so bad.
Even though she has come such a long way in terms of her timidity, there are still a lot of things we must deal with. It has been quite the experience trying to work with her and learn to communicate. It has required a lot (a lot) of patience, but it has also been very rewarding. And one of the greatest gifts that she has given me (besides the snuggles I get every day from her of course!) is that she has offered me new perspectives on how God looks at us.
One of the first times she taught me was around a year after we got her. We had purchased a new bookshelf for our living room. Naturally, our 80-pound furball of courage would hardly even enter the room after we put it up. We put her toys nearby, placed lots of smelly treats around it and on the bottom shelf, encouraged her with lots of praise and did our best to get her to go near it. Even with all that (and despite being a food motivated dog I might add) she still would tuck tail and leave the room if we tried to get her too close.
By day two or three I was a little frustrated. For months she had been getting better about being introduced to new things and I just wasn’t prepared to have her act this way around just a bookshelf. One afternoon, she rushed out of the room after trying and failing yet again to get one of the treats and I just leaned back and let out a big, frustrated sigh. “Lyla you’re fine, its not anything scary!” I thought to myself. And then it hit me.
How many times has God said that to me? How many times have I not wanted to do something because I was too afraid or nervous? How many times have I worried endlessly over something outside of my control, and how many times has God looked down from heaven and said, “Child you’re fine.” It’s so easy to forget that God sees the bigger picture. He can look at the bookshelf and know that it’s safe for us. If only we would trust Him, we would be free of fear.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
Proverbs 3:5-6
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He will make straight your paths.
I struggle a lot with fear and anxiety daily and, in a lot of ways, I realized I can relate to all of Lyla’s fears of the unknown. In one of my lowest points someone spoke the verse Proverbs 3:5-6 to me and everything about it has clung to my heart. It is the most comforting verse because it is so straightforward: lean not on your own understanding. I cannot rely on myself to overcome my fears. He will make straight your paths. Acknowledge Him, trust Him, and the road becomes clear.
To put it into Lyla’s terms, we all have our own “bookshelf” to face. Sometimes it’s something straightforward like knowing God has called you to do something, but you feel terrified to move forward. Sometimes our enemy attacks us in more abstract ways and we feel lost, alone or totally worthless. Whatever fear has rooted itself in you, the Bible tells us over and over again that we can rejoice because God helps us with every aspect of our lives.
The Lord is my strength and my shield;
Psalm 27:7
My heart trusted Him and I am helped;
Therefore my heart greatly rejoices,
And with my song I will praise Him
We are so fortunate to have a God who does care, who reminds us all throughout the Word that we can find peace in His presence and that He is greater than all our fears. I know that it’s easier said than done to let go of those fears. There are times when I find myself praying for the same things over and over again. But the most wonderful thing about God is that we can talk to Him about these fears any time we are afraid! All we have to do is lay it all at his feet and He gladly lifts our burdens.
Whenever I am afraid,
Psalm 56:3-4
I will trust in You.
In God I will praise His word,
In God I have put my trust;
I will not fear.
What can flesh do to me?
It doesn’t matter if we go to him with a single prayer or if we return to Him multiple times throughout the day, He is available to us. In Luke 18:1-8, Jesus himself offers the parable of the persistent widow. “And shall God not avenge His own who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?” (Luke 18:7). When we cry out, day and night, God is there. He comforts us even when we do not feel Him; He is working out His plans for us even when we do not see it.
Return to Him with persistence to pray. Bring your burdens to Him if it’s once a day or three times a day or a hundred times a day. That is the beauty of the God of mercy. He loves us enough to send His son to die for us, asking only we put our faith wholeheartedly in him. Next time you are facing your own bookshelf like Lyla, remember that you can bring those fears to God and lay them at His feet. Put your trust in Him and your heart can rejoice because he helps us overcome our fears.
Prayer
Dear heavenly Father, we come to you today to lay our fears at your feet. You are the God in control, you see what I cannot and know what I don’t. Help me to trust in you. Remind me every day that you are in control. In my weakest moments and in my strongest moments, help me to hear your voice.
Additional Verses for your own reading:
Matthew 6:25-34 (verse 27)
Luke 11:5-12
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