Today's Devotional

July 6, 2005

Subject:  The First Reaction To Fear

2Chronicles 20:3 - "And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah."

The adventure at Disney World last week with five children ages, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 was one of the most enlightening that I've had.  It's amazing how much you learn from simply watching them.  While I thought that I was in control and directing them, I was really learning more from them than anything.  Such was the case on the lesson of fear.

In the interest of safety, the parks have minimum height requirements for most all of the rides at Disney World's Magic Kingdom, which is where we were.  The youngest of the children, Shadrach (Shad), didn't seem to mind that he was the smallest and didn't meet many of the height requirements.  He tried tiptoeing to meet most of them.  He was quite bold and daring on most everything, even getting on rides I was surprised they let him on.  That sense of boldness was not to be the case when the late night fireworks display began.  Along with 3 of the remaining 4, Shad was quite fearful as he, along with the others, clung on to me for dear life as we stood in the middle of the park watching the dazzling light display and hearing the loud pops and explosions.

As soon as the display ended and while Shad was still quite wound up, he asked, "can y'all pray for me?"  We thought it was a humorous statement and began to chuckle at this little guy asking us to pray for him, but he let us know that he was serious and then stated in his Georgian accent, "I'm fuh real y'all.  Can y'all pray for me?"  We immediately realized that he was acknowledging his fear and knew that only God could deliver him from it.

What is your first reaction to fear?  Some of us run to things or away from things or sometimes we just cower in fright.  In the passage above, you see that Jehoshaphat, a man of God was fearful and you can see clearly what his first reaction was to that fear.  Not unlike Shad, Jehoshaphat sought God.  

Today take a note from Jehoshaphat or Shad and when faced with fear, learn that your first reaction should be to seek the Lord.  I found that I'm learning now to "be fuh real" and when faced with fearful events to cry out, "can y'all pray for me?"    

Carlen