Giant Crab of Fear

The headlines might read, "Woman Attacked by Giant Blue Crab!"  Caught between its sharp, pointy legs with pinchers ready to attack and wide mouth in position to do great bodily harm -- this is the stuff nightmares are made of!  Lucky for me it was only a painting on the wall of Frog Island's seafood store -- but, I do get a kick out of mugging for the camera (:

Pretend danger can be fun and exciting -- it's the real stuff, however, that can keep us awake at night, add gray hairs to our head, and cause our stress levels to rise several notches.  There's the fear that grabs us when we hear that one of our grandchildren might have a health issue, or one or our kids might have major problems, or we ourselves might start experiencing an unexplained pain or start having memory lapses -- or, we hear that a loved one or friend is suddenly in trouble.  These are the real things in life that make us shudder fearfully  and make us realize how vulnerable we are as human beings.

Both real and imagined fear is rampant among us -- ready to grab us with its painful pinchers.  The only way to gain victory over this entity that wants to devour us is to turn to the One who is in total control of everything we might possibly be fearful about.  He knows the situation and the outcome -- and He loves us.  It's important to always remember the verse in 2 Timothy 1:7:  "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

Since God is not the one giving us the spirit of fear, we know the culprit is the one who makes a giant blue crab look harmless.  Satan delights in dumping fear on us by the cartload.  If he can't find a real situation to create fear in us, he'll just make something up and throw a black cloak of imaginary fear over our heads.  He's a wiley one and he knows which buttons to push on each of us.  Even though the evil one is strong and powerful, Almighty God is far more strong and infinitely more powerful - as we read in 1 John 4 that, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world."

So, when you sense an attack of the giant blue crab of fear is about to grab you, stop and call out to Jesus and ask Him to keep you safe in His loving arms, to erase your fears and to take care of your every need.  He will replace our spirit of fear with, "....power and love and a sound mind."  Our great God is Master of all things - praise His holy name!