“When fear tells you what you won’t see, faith says look at God.” These words came rushing in with the sound of my alarm clock last week. It was the morning of my brother’s eye surgery.  Michael’s doctors said there was a possibility his vision wouldn’t return for at least three days post-op. I thought to myself, “Let’s see what God says about that.”

This thought wasn’t an arrogant response to their advice; it was a quiet assurance in my soul.  As the day of the surgery grew near, my resolve remained.  But the morning of the procedure, I sensed something else.  It was fear.

I’d prayed with my brother the night before. Others were praying for him too. And yet, as the moment of truth drew near, fear’s sinister voice grew louder. The irony of my battle didn’t escape me.  Just days before, I’d led the women’s prayer conference call for my church. Our prayer focus was overcoming fear. We drew the battle lines with God’s word and put the enemy on notice:

We are meant to be faith walkers; not fear dwellers.

For we walk by faith and not by sight. – 2 Corinthians 5:7 NIV

As thoughts swirled in my head about Michael, I wondered how his children were doing.  I thought about my two sisters too. Had fear picked a fight with each of us? I pulled out my phone and typed the words from my wake-up call:

When fear tells you what you won’t see, faith says look at God.

As I activated my family’s text thread, I prayed our faith was activated too. Michael immediately typed back “Thanks Joy, love you.” His text brought gravity to the fact that his surgery was a few hours away. But faith chimed in with its reminder, “God is already there.”

If you’ve also battled fear you know it doesn’t fight fair. It sucker punches us with our concern for what or who we love. It attempts to knockout our confidence in the faithfulness of God.  And yet, as fear tries to numb us with the worst case scenario, faith wakes us up with the truth:

God is for us and He will be no less than God to us.

I’m amazed by God’s choices to reveal His “for us” and “to us;” but each of us has a choice too.  Will we allow God’s word to abide “in us?”  Here are two of His promises that bring rest and rescue to my soul:

Romans 8:38-39 declares nothing can separate us from the love of God demonstrated by Christ’s death for us.

Philippians 4:13 says we can do all things through the strength Christ gives to us.

As I prayed on my brother’s behalf, I knew I wasn’t informing God. He knows what we need before we ask. However, whatever we ask in prayer, it affirms what we believe about Him.

I’m happy to report Michael’s surgery went well. His vision returned the same day. I am grateful for the way God chose to reveal Himself and for His faithful wake-up call to me.

If you’re apprehensive about a task, uneasy about an outcome or dreading a conversation, here’s some good news: God is already there and He will be no less than God to you. When what He’s done “for us” and who He is “to us” is welcomed by us, it brings hope for the heart and joy to the soul.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. – Hebrews 11:6 NIV

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