By: Carole L. Haines
Yesterday we spoke of changing our dance partners from fear to God. With God in the lead, we learn to trust Him more than anyone else, more than we trust ourselves. This yielding leads us out to freedom. Most of us have watched the Olympics. Ice Dancing is one of our favorites. My husband and I sit mesmerized by the immense trust required in a partner to be thrown into the air, twirled around and blindly expect that partner to be there to catch us them we don’t fall. That ice is an awfully cold, hard surface to hit. Yielding to God is like learning to relax into His arms as our dance partner. There is a Psalm that I have prayed countless times in my journey from fear to God’s Freedom.
Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes arrogant;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters, or in things too difficult for me.
I have certainly soothed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child
resting against his mother, my soul within me is like a weaned child.
(Your Name), wait for the Lord from this time on and forever. (Psalm 131)
When we are triggered by an event, we can immediately revert to former ways of coping and thinking. It can feel like regressing, almost becoming child-like. At least it is like that for me. I may not physically curl up in a fetal position, but inside I do. This is where the choice comes in, to trust God, My Dancing Partner, instead of my old responses of fear and self-protection.
As I am learning to do this repeatedly, I re-train my responses to be trust instead of fear. It can be an arduous process. But with God’s Powerful Word, and The Holy Spirit’s guidance, transformation is taking place. Peace, joy and contentment, which are found in the Love of God, are replacing the Fight or Flight response I used to have. There is such power in believing God’s Word above our own opinions, thoughts and intuitions.
“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Hebrews 4:12-13)
God’s Word exposes what triggers us, and we choose to let God lead us in the way we should go. Following Him, as a child follows his/her parent. Jesus needs to be our way out. Jesus’ death burial and resurrection were not just a “get out of hell” free card. There is freedom from what troubles us here on earth as well. He is our powerful Savior, from all that makes us fear.
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