Guest Post by Lauri Lemke Thompson
Doctors were considering surgery for three different medical issues I was experiencing – three! Plus, I faced a four-hour daunting nerve test. Fears and dark imaginings assailed me.
“I know you’ll do fine, Lauri,” a wise friend said. She did not promise any of it would be easy. Rather, she expressed confidence in my ability to cope well, no matter what.
Resembling the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz, I wondered what caused her to believe in me. I concluded she knew my faith – and, even more, the God in whom I put that faith.
Her words reminded me of Gideon in the Bible. Cowering in a secret threshing spot, hiding from the Midianites, God’s angel greeted him: “The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor.” Judges 6:12b (NKJV). [Valor is courage in the face of danger.]
Did Gideon suppress laughter? He knew he had done nothing to demonstrate might or valor. But God knew that if Gideon would obey His instructions, he could be used to win an important victory over those Midianites, and later become his nation’s leader.
Gideon pulled himself up out of that hiding place and accomplished both, despite weak faith at first. God believed in Gideon – in what he could become. And He believes in you too.
As she was leaving the abbey to work for the Von Trapp family, Maria in The Sound of Music sang, “I have confidence in confidence alone . . . I have confidence in me!”
The lilting Richard Rodgers song worked for a character in a movie – not so much in real life. Healthy self-confidence is fine but making God the “object” of our faith is what gives us true and lasting courage.
“Give us help from trouble,” King David wrote in Psalm 108. “For the help of man is useless. Through God, we will do valiantly. For it is He who shall tread down our enemies.” (Verses 12-13, NIV).
David’s enemy was a powerful nation, and he probably wrote this song on the eve of battle. My enemy during those troublesome weeks was not a foreboding army of foot soldiers but anxiety.
God stomped on my anxiety and brought me through. When it came time for that painful nerve test, I silently repeated the above Scripture (“Through God, I will do valiantly”) throughout the test and handled it well.
In the end, none of the possible three surgeries that had me so concerned proved necessary. That outcome was wonderful – but perhaps more wonderful was that my faith in God had been tested, and I grew stronger.
If fear about something grips me now, I point my finger at it and say, “Nuh-uh. Through God, I shall do valiantly.”
Do you sometimes feel like the whimpering Cowardly Lion? When that happens, ask God for help. You, too, can become a man or woman of valor.
“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning how to sail my ship.” — Louisa May Alcott
A Wisconsin native, Lauri Lemke Thompson appreciates living with her husband in the lovely Ozark mountains in Branson, Missouri. She is active in Christian Women’s Connection (Stonecroft) and the Ozarks Chapter of the American Christian Writers. Her two books, Hitting Pause and Pressing Forward, are collections of her articles and devotions. Her bimonthly column appears in the Branson Globe newspaper