The fear of falling

The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. — Deuteronomy 33:27

Have you ever dreamed that you were falling out of bed or from some great height, and you awoke in fright? I remember that as a boy, I would often be awakened by such a terrifying feeling.

I heard about a man who had this sensation as soon as he slipped into sleep. He was so rudely awakened by his sense of falling that he was afraid to go back to sleep. He feared he would die, and he imagined he was falling into a bottomless pit.

Then one evening as he was strolling through a cemetery, he saw this phrase engraved on a tombstone:

Underneath Are

The Everlasting Arms

These words reminded him that when believers die, they are safely carried by the Lord to their home in heaven. He recalled the assurance of the psalmist, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me” (Ps. 33:4).

The once-fearful man realized that in life and in death — and even in sleep — the “everlasting arms” of our loving Lord are there to catch and hold us. That night he was able to sing what he was taught in childhood, “Teach me to live that I may dread the grave as little as my bed!” At last he could fall asleep without fear.— M. R. De Haan, MD

I can trust my loving Savior

When I fear the world’s alarms;

There’s no safer place of resting

Than His everlasting arms. — Hess

READ: Psalm 46

You can trust God in the dark as well as in the light.

The Bible in one year:

• 1 Samuel 13-14

• Luke 10:1-24