My spiritual director once told me that the devil is a coward. He doesn't like to attack you in the middle of the day. He much prefers attacking you in the middle of the night when your guard is down, when you're drowsy. He likes to attack you when you are alone, when you can't seek out help from others. This is what happened to me last night. I was overcome with fear. This pit formed in my stomach and I was deeply afraid. At the time I felt that it was completely rational for me to have these fears, that I should be fearful. I never really did get back to sleep. I dozed off and on and at about 5:30 AM I got up and started reading a novel to take my mind off of the fears I was having.
I discussed these fears I had in the middle of the night with my wife after she got up this morning. She and I both agreed that these fears I was having were completely irrational and needed to be disregarded. I remembered what my spiritual director said about the devil attacking in the dead of the night. I let go of my fears.
As I was praying this afternoon, I came across something I had written in my journal a few years back. I don't remember who said it, but it provided more reassurance to me and my fears:
Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing frighten you.
Everything passes away except God.
God alone is sufficient.How true these statements are. It doesn't matter what your fears are, whether they are irrational fears like I had in the middle of the night or if they are legitimate fears.
If I allowed myself to I could find all kinds of things to be fearful about. I could fear my job stability. I could fear losing my wife and kids. I could fear the future of the country. There are many fears that I could, that we all could, wrap ourselves up in and be fearful about. But we must keep in mind that "everything passes away except God. God alone is sufficient." We have nothing to fear. It is all in His hands.