I am trusting in you

But when I am afraid,
I will put my trust in you.—Psalm 56:3

When our children were young, every night we gathered all three of them together to brush their teeth and then hop into bed. After this we would read a story, then pray with them before we turned off the lights.

And this is usually when it happened: the fear of turning off the light.

“Wait Daddy, could I have a drink of water?”
“Could you read a little more?”
“Can I go to the bathroom one more time?”
“Would you stay with me?”

At first I didn’t understand but, after a while, it dawned on me: “They are afraid of the dark—they don’t want to be alone in the darkness.”

Why do we fear the darkness? What innate sense within us recoils at the prospect of living (sleeping) in the dark? Even as adults we wish for a light to bring clarity to our path, to our future.

No wonder God describes himself as light. John, one of Jesus’ closest disciples described God this way: This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. —1 John 1:5

Phil Joel recorded the song “I Will Not Be Afraid” to help remind our kids (and us) that, when darkness comes, we don’t need to be afraid. You can listen to that beautiful reminder here. This song is not only a beautiful affirmation of God’s presence to us, but a way to help our children memorize where to turn in their times of darkness.

King David wrote, To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. —Psalm 139:12

Wherever we are, He sees. Whatever we’re doing, He knows. There is no place we can hide, nor is there anywhere we can go that we would be separated from his love. Again, David writes:

But when I am afraid,
I will put my trust in you.
I praise God for what he has promised.
I trust in God, so why should I be afraid?
What can mere mortals do to me? —Psalm 56:3–4

Here is my paraphrase: “When I am afraid, I will trust you. I praise God for what he has promised.” And what has he promised? To never leave us. To never forsake us. “So we can fully trust Him. Why should I be afraid? What can anything in this world do to me?

And it is from that place we can teach our little ones:

I will not be afraid,
I will not be afraid of the darkness.
I will not be afraid,
I am trusting in you.

Bill Herried is lead pastor at CenterPoint Church in Tacoma, Washington and is married to the most extraordinary woman on the planet. Together they have 3 adult children and 4 grandchildren. He has an undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in Seattle, and Master of Divinity from Corban University in Salem, Oregon—and he loves a good biryani.

Image by Andreas Lischka from Pixabay