Is there a spider hanging over your hammock?

I love a good hammock. It is a place you can kick back and rest because you can’t really be productive just lying there swinging. The other day, though, as I went to hang out in the hammock in the yard, I saw a huge spider had built a web directly over it. 

As I reclined there under the spider in his web, I couldn’t exactly rest. Every time I closed my eyes I felt like I needed to open them again. Will he drop on me? Will the hammock swaying disturb him? Does he know I am here? Does he bite humans? I could feel the adrenaline in my body and my heart rate elevate. Was there any point in staying in this hammock with the spider above me?
 
I did get up and leave him to his territory. It immediately made me think, though, of the way it made me feel and how that feeling seems to be hanging over the world right now. We hear of soaring numbers of people battling chronic anxiety and fear over the past few years.
 
Do you feel a persistent sense of dread? Like the next bad thing might drop on you any minute now?

I couldn’t help but ask myself if God approves of this posture towards the future. I don’t think he wants us to live in fear, dread, and a constant sense of being agitated and unsettled. Here are just some of the places in Scripture that address this:
 

Isaiah writes:
“This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel says: ‘In repentance and rest is our salvation, in quietness and trust is our strength, but you would have none of it.’”  Isaiah 30:15
 
John writes that Jesus said:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me…Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” John 14:1,27
 
Paul wrote:
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts…and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”  Colossians 3:15-16

 
Notice that we have a choice: to LET our hearts be troubled or to LET the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. Meditate on the words above until they take root in your heart. Go slowly through Philippians 4.  Choose one of those scriptures to use as you hit that spider off the chain.
 
God’s design is peace, not agitation and dread.
 
God’s design is rest in his love, not fear.
 
God gives us the power through Christ to live this way in any time, season or circumstance. God in Christ will meet us in disaster and tragedy and will not leave us to face it alone. 
 
Hit the spider off the chain with the peace of God and trust in the love of God.
 
Getting the scripture ready for the next spider,

Ellen

Written November 21, 2021