Dealing with Dread

Mary’s Monday Musings to Quilt Encouragement

Dealing with Dread

 

 

Sometimes anticipation is unpleasant. Anticipating shots, surgery, disagreements, layoffs or worse can bring dread and anxiety. Somehow, life has a way of sprinkling in experiences that run the gamut from distasteful to horrific.  Sometimes the sprinkle arrives more like a downpour of hurricane proportions. One response is to withdraw from things that alarm us. We try to steel ourselves from dreadful things; but we have areas where no matter what we do, we can’t prevent the problem. Our best defense is the Lord God Almighty. Running a scene over and over again through our minds doesn’t help. Hashing and re-hashing a scene only prolongs our resentment, anger or fears and prevents or delays finding solutions. Instead, call in our thought-control police. Our thinking plays an important part in the swamp of dread. Blow the whistle on negative thoughts. When we throw ourselves upon God’s mercy and protection, we are reminded of His great love and power to intervene in our situations. Substituting thoughts about our magnificent God leads us to praise and empowers us to deal fatal blows to dread.

 

 

Want to bolster your faith?  Read Psalm 145. As we read, we can also recall all the testimonies in our past as well as the testimonies we’ve heard of others which affirm the truths these verses proclaim. In verse 5, we are reminded to meditate on God’s majestic, glorious splendor and His miracles. When we continue on, we are reminded of His greatness and goodness, His mercy and compassion, His unfailing love and mighty deeds.  Our faith is strengthened when we are reminded that He keeps His promises and helps those who have fallen or bent beneath their loads. He satisfies hunger and thirst and is close when we call on Him. He hears our cries, protects and rescues us. Whew! Those words boost my spirits. The version I used is the New Living Testament. When we prayerfully read any version of the Bible, the time is well spent. The words enlarge our faith and strengthens our backbones of belief and chase away our dreads.