Fear & Anxiety
I am scared of flying, and I have started turning down trips because of it. I know the fear is out of proportion and it does not help at all. What now?
“What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.”
David wrote this while a fugitive, captured in enemy territory at Gath, in genuine physical danger. He does not claim to be unafraid. The line runs the other way: there is a time when he is afraid, and that is precisely the moment he trusts. Fear is treated as the starting condition rather than the failure. Trust is not the absence of the racing heart, it is what you do while your heart is racing.
“And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”
Peter is the only disciple who gets out of the boat, and he is also the only one who sinks. Matthew is careful about the sequence: the hand comes first and the question comes second. Jesus catches him, and the man he calls of little faith is already being held above the water while he hears it. Going under is treated as part of learning to walk, not as disqualification.
A path forward
Take the smallest version of the thing you are avoiding this month: a short flight, or a booked seat you can actually see on a screen. Avoidance grows the fear every time you obey it.
Choose one verse about God's presence and put it in your phone or your wallet, then read it deliberately at the moment the fear peaks. Scripture used at the point of pressure works differently from scripture read calmly at home.
Ask a friend to fly with you once, and tell them beforehand what you will need from them. Doing the hard thing accompanied is not cheating.
Closing verse
“When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.”
- Isaiah 43:2
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