Panic attacks nothing new and don't last

Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest. Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness ... I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. - Psalm 55:6b-8

Life sometimes hurts; Psalm 55 expresses this. We get emotionally bruised and feel like running away, feel like vengeance, feel dread at facing what is next.

Those feelings, though real, are not accurate or lasting in the psalmist or in us.

During the thick of it let God speak to your mind and heart, just as he did to the Psalmist a few verses later:

Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. - Psalm 55:22

Following Christ in the "Real" World

The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"

He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!" - Matthew 8:25-27

Jesus spent much of his time getting his own disciples to believe. They had left all to follow but they still had a disconnect between what they considered religious faith and the "real" world.

If they were like me they were thinking, "Sure Jesus is the Messiah, but we're in a real storm, here! Jesus, wake up and start bailing! That's just the lesson they learned, he doesn't need to bail and we don't either - at least not in a panic!

He was, and is, active in the "real" world of storms and layoffs, bills and breakdowns, saving us from what we can't handle, living through us, with his grace, in what we can.

-fritz


1 - Matthew 16:15-17