The Lord delivered me from all my fears

“I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”  (Psalm 34: 5)

Fears that keep us awake at night are some of these:  health, family, money, job, tools (cars, homes, computers, etc), food and future.  From personal experience, David bore witness to the fact that confronted by these fears, he sought the Lord.  He did not hide his fears as he did not cover his sins.  Some weeks ago, I was attacked by fears over money and job.  Providentially, I read Psalm 34 early that morning and I knew what to do.  I listed my fears on a piece of paper and took it to the Lord in the Chapel.  Standing very close to the Monstrance containing the Blessed Sacrament, I placed the piece of paper at the base of the Monstrance and surrendered my fears to the Lord.  The Lord delivered me from my fears.

“I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”  (Psalm 34: 5)

Exactly three weeks after this deliverance, the fears returned.  I remembered the Chinese proverb:  “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.  Teach him how to fish and you feed him for life.”  Because I had learned the lesson of what to do with my fears, I returned with the list to the good place.  I stood again very close to the Presence of the Lord and surrendered the fears once more.  Once more, the Lord relieved me of my fears. 

Then I wondered:  Why doesn’t the Lord deliver me once and for all from all my fears?  I understood that there just as some illnesses are cured by surgery, others like are managed by medications.  God Himself taught us in Matthew 4:4:  “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.”  This means that God in His all loving and powerful providence is both able and willing to use the necessary means to satisfy all living things.  His ways are not our ways.  His thoughts are not our thoughts.