You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday. Psalm 91:5-6 ESV

I’m not afraid of too many things. I’ve found the older I get, I’m even less afraid of the many things I encounter. I know some folks are afraid of various things in their day-to-day lives. I’m not judging in any way. Nor am I bragging I’m not afraid of anything. But there is one thing I became afraid of when I was much younger. Try as I might, it won’t leave me and stay away. 

Here I go, I’m fessing up—I’m afraid of the dark. 

AND I’M OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW BETTER

Sometimes I’m okay and sometimes I lose sleep because it’s dark. This goes back to when I was in fifth grade—don’t try to guess, it was fifty-seven years ago. My aunt and cousin were spending the night with us. My cousin and I were asleep in my room. I awoke to laughing, but soon realized my mom and aunt had also gone to bed and the house was dark. It wasn’t them. This was summer and the windows were open.

Then, it dawned on me that the noise was coming from outside. I crawled over my cousin and commando crawled to my mom’s room and woke her up. She grabbed a flashlight, the phone book, went into the bathroom and closed the door. She called Mr. Pass next door and asked if he could let Duke, his German Shepherd, out as there were two teenage boys looking in my window. He did and Duke chased them down the hill and stood on them until the police came. 

Fast forward about five years. I was home alone and watching TV. I kept feeling like someone was watching me. My parents weren’t home but I had locked the doors. So, I turned off the TV and went to my room to hide. The next morning, I went out the front door and saw a huge pile of cigarette butts in the bushes right outside the window. I went back into the house and told my parents about it. My suspicion of a person outside the window looking in was confirmed.

My fear of the dark had been planted well. Unfortunately, I’ve carried it into my mature age. 

MY LIGHTBULB MOMENT

No pun intended, but a few weeks ago at Bible study, we were reading through Psalm 91. When the teacher read verse five and six, I read them over and over a couple of times while she continued. “You will not fear the terror of the night. . .” But I do, Lord. How do I release it?

Then came verses nine and ten. “Because you have made the LORD your dwelling place—the Most High, who is my refuge—no evil shall be allowed to befall you . . .”

Lord, you are my dwelling place, you are my refuge. Please guide me to let this fear be gone once and for all. 

NEXT, THE PEACE WASHED OVER ME

In study, we landed on verse eleven for a few minutes. I did not cry, but I may or may not have had water collect in my lower lids. 

“For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways.” Psalm 91:11 ESV

Like the angels will guard me? Yes. In all my ways? Yes. So, I need not fear the dark anymore because God’s angels will be guarding me? Yes, again.

Like I said, this was a couple of weeks ago. We moved to this current house almost two years ago. I hear a lot of noises here and I’ve managed to only sleep about two to three hours at a time each night. While I won’t say I’ve slept a full eight hours ever since we studied this—I’ve never, ever slept eight hours straight unless I was sick—but the last two weeks I’ve had more nights of five to six hours of uninterrupted sleep. Each night I whisper out loud before I pull the covers up, “God has commanded His angels to guard me this night.”

YOUR TURN

What about you? Are you afraid of something that won’t release its grip on you? Maybe you were afraid of something, but you have found peace about it that only God could give? Share with us below. Or if you’d like to talk about this, I’m happy to share more—drop your question or comment below.