No Fear

It has been a very rainy summer this year in South Georgia, inches after inches, week after week. Our grass is soft and thick like the plushest carpet. This combined with a slight slope in our front yard makes the perfect path for learning to ride a bike. One day, out of the blue, Sophie decided she was ready to ride her bike without training wheels.

So we made run after run down the grassy slope with me holding on to the seat and running behind her. She was so proud of herself when I let go and she did it on her own. We continued until it started raining again and retreated inside. Two days later we were outside playing after supper. Sophie wanted to practice again. This time she wanted to ride on the drive way. So here we went again. Pass after pass, one direction and then the other. It doesn’t take much bending over a little bicycle and running back and forth after eating pizza and hot wings to get winded. Several times I suggested she go over to the grass and try by herself. “It’s soft; you won’t get hurt.”

“I’m too scared,” she’d say. So we kept going. Finally after I could no longer run with her, I told her again to go try on the grass. Again she said, “I’m too scared.”

“Why are you scared? You did it just two days ago, and you did great.”

“Well you were right there with me” she proclaimed. She knew when I was running alongside her that I wouldn’t let her fall. Even though the grass was soft and wouldn’t hurt her, she wanted to know I was there with her.

Sounds like a life lesson to me. How often do we as Christians try to deal with the trials of life without realizing that our Heavenly Father is there with us? We flounder around trying to deal with things on our own when God is right there with us. We often allow fear to seize us and keep us from doing the things God has called us to do. I love the way the Amplified Bible translates Hebrews 13:5 “He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (^[relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]” Wow, what a promise! But that’s not all; verse 6 goes on to tell us how we should respond to that promise. “So we take comfort and are encouraged and confidently and boldly say, The Lord is my Helper; I will not be seized with alarm [I will not fear or dread or be terrified].” When we realize that God is with us and will never let go of us, we can face life’s challenges without fear.

Sophie will eventually learn to ride her bike without my help and without fear of falling. Thankfully, as God’s children, we will never have to ride life’s stormy seas alone. God is always right there with us, and He will not let us fall. That’s a promise.