Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
14 Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.
I wrote about one fear I had in another blogL the very strong dislike of spiders. And there is another fear that I had to over come. I have always not liked heights in-fact the closer I can stay to the ground the better. But it is possible to over come this fear
When I was in the Marines we had to be dropped out of a Hughey Helicopter. Both side doors were wide open and we were facing outward looking to either side. And to make matter worse the pilot was a very experienced bush pilot. He would fly just at the top of the trees and then drop straight down as soon as he got to the other side of the trees and fly just above the ground.
This was rough to learn to deal with but when they said we had to rappel down rope to disembark the helicopter that made it worse I saw no reason to slide down a rope when we had a perfectly good helicopter that could just land and let us off. But for some reason this is something the Marines felt there was a need to learn.
I was young.
And, I had to admit while it was not something I would have chose to do there was a side of me that was very excited about getting to the ground like this.
Another time we had to rappel down the side of a cliff and learn how to stop if we got out of control on the rope. But being young this still got the excitement started in me. But then we had to work as a team and it was decided I would be the one who would be the injured one and we had to work together to get me back to our bivouac area.
One of the exercises that we had to do was to get me across a raven on a stretch by using our belts to suspend me to the rope that was strung across the ravine. So I was laying on the stretcher and all I could see was straight up so I was a bit un-nerved these were all men I worked with that I had complete confidence in till that moment. So what would I do would I trust these men that I trained with day in and day out to get me across to safety.
Or, would I say forget this your not going to tie me to a rope on a stretcher with your belts.
So what do you think happened?
I was tied to the rope and I was 17 at the time so I must have trusted them to some degree. So we can over come fears. As the scriptures says I can do all things through Christ. He will help us to over come our fears. Have I ever completely over came my dislike of heights or spiders? Probably not. But with the help of Jesus and faith that we are over comers we can grow.
Romans 8:30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.
31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
If God be for us who can be against us. There is no question God is for us and through his grace we can over come the things that gives us problems in our lives.
To add a bit of additional information I used to have a problem with public speaking. Then when I first started at Bellmar parts and got into parts quality one of the things that had to be done was every Monday there would be a shift meeting and everyone on the shift would be in the meeting and to start out with.
I was ok attending the meeting because someone else in parts quality would give our quality report. But one Monday I was the only one from quality that showed up to the meeting and all the reports was laid in my hands and they said, “Hebert you have to give the report today.”
Needless to say everything had acronym instead of the words written out so I had to learn some acronyms real fast. I gave the report and one of the guys walked up and said, “You just got an additional job!”
So in this situation I had no choice but to over come my fear of public speaking. God takes a bad situation and uses it for his good.
I hope this blesses you in some way. May God bless you and may he bring you through your fears.