I grew up in Monessen,
a small town south of Pittsburgh in western Pennsylvania, U.S.A. Our school district implemented a compulsory
requirement that every junior high school student must take a swimming class.
Long before reaching eighth grade, I looked over the academic horizon with
great fear and trepidation at the prospect of this impending aquatic experience
– because prior to that I never was a swimmer. Mr. Romasco, our teacher,
was a laid-back and congenial sort of fellow, but he seemed rather heartless
when it came down to enforcing this swimming mandate. At a certain point in the class, whether or
not students had acquired sufficient skills of floating, stroking, or treading
water, we were compelled to jump into the deepest part of the pool, to touch
the bottom with our feet and to spring off to the other side.
How vividly I remember
my dreaded date with this natatory destiny. Although it was quite warm in the enclosed
pool area, it felt frighteningly frigid to me. My teeth were chattering, my hands were
trembling and my knees were knocking. FEAR
gripped me, body, mind and soul. My best
friend, Wesley Miller (who could not swim very well either), was just ahead in
line and I watched him leap stoically into the depths at our teacher’s command.
Wesley sank to the bottom like a rock,
and did not surface right away as planned. Mr. Romasco did something then that I shall
never forget. He stood over the side of
the pool, cupped his hands over his mouth to form an impromptu megaphone, and
hollered out “Swim boy, swim!” WHAT?!? I was immediately stricken with panic and paralyzing
fear!
First of all, I was
justifiably concerned for my best friend’s safety, and secondly I WAS NEXT UP ON
DECK! My mind was reeling, rapidly
coming to the conclusion that if Wesley could not do this…well, you fill in the
rest. After several seconds had passed (it felt more like five minutes), Neal,
a fellow student and an accomplished swimmer, dove in and assisted Wesley from
the pool. It turned out that Wesley only
swallowed a little water and was perfectly fine, although in our 13 shared
years on the planet I never recalled seeing him that frightened.
Since I was up next,
Mr. R would be closing in on me at any moment, so I paused, closed my eyes and
SPOKE A SILENT WORD TO GOD, and I suppose to myself as well. “Help me Lord...PLEASE…help me Lord!!!” “Wayne, you can do
this. You can DO this!!!” Mr. Romasco blew his whistle (how I hated that terrifying
whistle), and I summoned sufficient intestinal fortitude to launch my personal leap
of faith into the aquatic deep. I was
pleasantly surprised (actually shocked) when my toes touched the bottom and I
pushed off toward the other side. Admittedly, it was a struggle reaching the
other side since my breaststroke skills were fairly weak, but somehow I made
it! THANK GOD…I made it!
Kingdom Principle
Number Three: WHENEVER FEAR GRIPS YOU, SPEAK A WORD TO THE LIVING WORD!
Got it? Amen! Lesson learned.
Another school
memory comes to mind. I had a wonderful
English teacher, Mrs. Judy Paglia. Each
class was filled with a variety of rich learning experiences. She was a terrific mentor in developing my
writing skills, but the academic activity that she deemed most beneficial was
something called “WORD POWER.” In each
class, we were presented with a new and totally unfamiliar word. Our task: to read, to write, to define, to
remember. My repertoire of words grew
exponentially because this superb teacher knew THE POWER OF THE WRITTEN AND
SPOKEN WORD. How applicable indeed is
this principle to our spiritual walk.
Whenever we WRITE THE
WORD (Habakkuk 2:2)…and whenever we SPEAK THE WORD (Acts 4:29 – Acts 14:3 –
Philippians 1:14)…we enter with power and authority into THE FAITH ZONE. Know this: It is impossible for FAITH and FEAR
to co-exist! Fear seeks to erode the
image of God in us, and to paralyze our confidence and progress. So, we must NOT allow fear to cause us to lose
our way as we traverse toward divine purpose and destiny. There is so much ‘distorted knowledge’ that
Satan seeks to magnify via his attempts to move us into anxiety, i.e. fear of
what others think, fear of the unknown, fear of our past, fear of the future,
fear of our enemies, fear of loneliness, fear of loving (again), fear of death,
fear of failure, and yes, even fear of success.
My personal panacea
for fear is a continual remembrance of one powerful truth which I speak aloud
every day. It is the blessed assurance
of JESUS CHRIST: “I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew
28:20) Therefore, whenever we are tempted to embrace fear, we must staunchly
refuse to focus on any satanic suggestions.
Rather, we must and shall magnify the WORDS OF OUR GOD! We will read them…write them…speak
them…meditate on them…pray them…believe them…act on them…and give GOD praise
and glory as He navigates us safely through every curve and pothole on life’s
road.
God issued a marvelous
opportunity-mandate to Joshua as he led the Israelites into their Promised
Land: “This BOOK OF THE LAW shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall
meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that
is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will
have GOOD SUCCESS.” (Joshua 1:8) Wow!
During every major
manifestation of God’s glory, whenever Heaven’s promise uniquely intersected
earth, nearly every world-shaking revelation sent by God via angelic hosts was
issued with two liberating and life-changing words: “FEAR NOT!” (Genesis 15:1 –
Exodus 20:20 – Isaiah 41:10 – Matthew 1:20 – Luke 1:30 – Luke 2:10 – Luke 12:32
– Revelation 2:10)
Why not take this
Heavenly Emancipation Proclamation with YOU into each and every life-situation?
“FEAR NOT!” Winner-believer…THE SON has already set you
FREE FROM FEAR, and you are free indeed! (John 8:36)
Sisters and brothers,
be continually blessed, and please (above all else) MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY TO
MEET OUR SOON COMING KING. Maranatha!
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