Have No Fear of Sudden Disaster - Proverbs 3:25

The Anna Szabo Show

In today’s Biblical devotional for Christian women, we will ponder Proverbs 3:25-26 (how to not be afraid) and its practical application in our daily lives: “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.” I will share with you an example from my life of how I stay mentally strong in the midst of a global pandemic, nationwide unemployment, and an economic crisis.

I will also explain why learning how to not be afraid is critical. We will review the consequences of allowing the fear of a sudden disaster and ruin to overwhelm you. At the end of my message, I’ll offer you a powerful prayer. In this Biblical devotional for Christian women today, I’ll help you examine your own faith journey with God. We will explore why it’s so critical for us as Christian women, the disciples of Jesus, to always remember that it’s the Lord who is at our side and keeps us from being trapped.

“Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.” Proverbs 3:25-26. Fearing sudden disasters and ruin leaves you anxious, scared, mentally paralyzed, emotionally overwhelmed, physically exhausted, and unable to do God’s work, incapable to fulfill His purpose for your life. That is why learning and practicing how to not be afraid is so critical.

The CDC reports: “Communities have faced mental health challenges related to COVID-19–associated morbidity, mortality, and mitigation activities, including the impact of physical distancing and stay-at-home orders. The percentage of respondents who reported having seriously considered suicide in the 30 days before completing the survey (10.7%) was significantly higher among respondents aged 18–24 years (25.5%).

This Biblical devotional for Christian women will be relevant and helpful to all of the listeners of my Christian podcast – The Anna Szabo Show – and all the readers of my Christian blog everywhere in the world. We all need to learn now how to not be afraid because being afraid is deadly in the midst of this ongoing global crisis.

This original and authentic Biblical devotional will encourage and empower you with God’s truth as we apply it practically to real-life experiences we all are going through all around the globe because we are all facing a continuous sudden disaster and have been affected by it for over a year already.

I make content to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. My passion in life is to help encourage and empower you by sharing testimonies of God’s amazing glory revealed through my life story. I personally have adjusted my life a lot due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I myself have a history of suicidal depression, and also during the pandemic, the number of women who came to my Christian blog because of their self-harm impulses has increased significantly. I have to practice every day how to not be afraid by leaning on God.

I love you. When I was depressed and suicidal during my marriage with a narcissist a few years ago, as God was working in me to keep me alive in the midst of cruel abuse, I thought of you: the Christian woman facing challenges. I thought to myself: if I ever make it out of this abusive marriage alive, I’ll dedicate myself to ministry and help other Christian women. And I’ve been doing this since 2017 when I started my Christian podcast for women and founded Online Discipleship For Women.

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There are three things you can expect from this Biblical devotional for Christian women today:

1. You’ll hear the scriptures-based devotional I prepared for you
2. There will be an exercise for you to do in order to ponder Proverbs 3:25-26 as it relates to your own faith journey (how to not be afraid)
3. I’ll offer you a prayer to lift you up to God and ask for His peace, protection, provision, and promotion

Let’s get started!

PART 1. BIBLICAL DEVOTIONAL FOR CHRISTIAN WOMEN

“Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.” Proverbs 3:25-26

Many times in my life, I faced disasters.

When I was little, my mother molested me and would physically torture me by spreading dry toasted triangular grain over the bare hardwood floor and forcing me to kneel for hours at a time.

God protected, saved, and restored me.

When I was 25, I emigrated to America to live my happily-ever-after with a real-life Prince Charming. As soon as I arrived in 2008, I was beaten and enslaved. After 8 months of domestic violence, the Dunwoody Police Department conducted a rescue operation and helped me escape on April 9th of 2009. I was homeless in a foreign country without speaking any English. I had no money and no friends.

God protected, saved, and restored me.

On May 14th of 2016, I married an amazing Christian man, a seminary graduate who worked at a mega-Church in Alpharetta and officiated weddings, doing marriage counseling for couples. After our wedding night, he started disappearing, admitted to cheating on me, spent all my money leaving me without food, threatened me with violence any time I tried to talk to him about our marriage, and he filed for divorce twice in our first year of marriage, costing me $25k. I was diagnosed with Complex PTSD while married to him. He dehumanized, manipulated, gaslighted, stonewalled me, and staged circumstances to make me believe that I was crazy. I became severely depressed and suicidal. After our divorce jury trial, I was left with no energy, and with massive debt. Most of my friends were gone, and I had to start my life over.

God protected, saved, and restored me.

Today, I live a single and celibate life with God serving Him through my ministry for Christian women to share my powerful testimony and life story to give God all the glory. I was supporting myself by doing marketing contracts when the pandemic hit early in 2020. I felt so devastated… But … “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.” – Psalms 40:1-2. I was patient in faith and because of my faith, I remained productive and proactive.

“Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.” Proverbs 3:25-26

Now, let me tell you exactly how to not be afraid.

How do I stay faithful when faced with disaster and potential ruin?

1. I pray and remain in God’s word daily, and I share the fruit of this spiritual practice at AnnaSzabo.com/prayers
2. I practice fasting from food and water at least 2-3 times a month for 24 hours to up to 5 days, and I explain it on AnnaSzabo.com/fasting
3. I keep a gratitude journal where I ponder God’s goodness and grace, and I explain my thanksgiving habits on AnnaSzabo.com/thanksgiving
4. I don’t force my emotions to build up and explode; instead, I cry whenever I want to, freely and intensely; and I explain it on AnnaSzabo.com/feelings
5. I maintain healthy daily habits to practice meaningful self-care, and I explained it at AnnaSzabo.com/self-care
6. I read helpful books that empower me, and my journey is shared on AnnaSzabo.com/reading-challenge
7. I exercise every day and also stretch, which is explained in great detail at AnnaSzabo.com/fitness
8. I eat good food that promotes brain health, such as colorful fruits, vegetables, herbs, berries, nuts, and seeds. I elaborate on this topic at AnnaSzabo.com/food
9. I leverage introspection to witness God’s good plan for my life unfolding as I look back and document what happened, literally seeing God’s glory throughout my entire life story.
10. I am careful in choosing whom I talk to and to whom I listen and whom I allow to influence me. I’ve had a friend say the pandemic was a hoax. I haven’t talked to her in months. I had a friend call me always panicked and telling me to practically save her. Of course, I’m not Jesus. I serve Jesus. But everyone must take action to practice their faith. No human can save another human. I can share my testimony with you and ponder God’s word with you, but you are responsible for you. I am not responsible for you. I limited my communication with that friend because I am responsible for né and for my own mental health and God asked me to guard my heart for everything I do flows from it. Last week’s devotional was about that.

“Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.” Proverbs 3:25-26

While the Lord is indeed by out side, God gave us free will so that we can choose to do what’s fight based on our faith. The Bible says “faith without works is dead,” in other words having faith but not mobilizing and deploying it every day through actions and decisions is as if having no faith at all.

One of the comments I received on my recent YouTube video about faith during trials and tribulations is from a woman who goes by K R. She explained how terrible she feels and how much she needs hope, so I prayed for her as I often do on my YouTube and blog for Christian women. The next thing I know, she transfers her responsibility for her actions and thoughts on me!!! And she goes on to reveal to me her faith in a Santa Clause God who is supposed to grant her wishes through me. Here’s a part of that conversation.

“Anna, thank you for your words. I am so weak… I can barely function. My brain is foggy, and I am amazed at your clarity and energy level… 20 years with an evil narcissistic husband and a lifetime with a narcissistic mother – and I can’t make good decisions. Why aren’t your prayers answered and I am healed of brain fog, despair, depression, and suicidal ideation? I have believed for it. What am I doing wrong? How do you make yourself function?”

To which I responded:

““How” is explained in detail in the free helpful resources I shared with you. Also, tonight’s video at 7:45 pm expands on the “how” of the process of healing. It is definitely an active everyday process of taking productive action in faith as I described at AnnaSzabo.com/what-is-faith” and I gave her the Bible verse that’s the most applicable in tis situation – James 2:26

As you can see from this example, having faith but not practicing it while expecting a Santa Clause God to make your life easy will never get you anywhere. God gave this woman my YouTube channel full of powerful testimony to encourage and empower her. God gave this woman my Christian blog with over 100000 words of Biblical content to encourage and empower her. God kept me up at night writing a heartfelt Biblical prayer genuinely lifting this woman up to encourage and empower her. Yet, she comes back and says: “Where is God? Why is my life not rainbow-univorny yet? Why have my trials and tribulations not disappeared after your prayer, Anna? Why is your prayer not working?”

And this brings me to my main point.

Have faith when you’re dealing with adversity, be prayerful, and have a grateful heart, not an entitled one. Practice your faith through faith-based decisions and actions every day. That’s HOW you demonstrate that you “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.”

PART 2. PROVERBS 3:25-26 SPIRITUAL EXERCISE TO GROW YOUR FAITH

I want you to think right now about YOUR journey with God and what kinds of disasters and ruin you are facing. What is it that makes you feel overwhelmed, depressed, and hopeless, derailing you from God’s purpose and His purpose for your life?

Once you identify what that is, let me know in the comments how you plan to courageously practice your faith through faith-based decisions and actions now. Once you share it with me, I want to hold you accountable because your next step is this: “Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.” Proverbs 3:25-26

Before we pray, I’d like to invite you to support my ministry by making a donation. Shop my Christian apparel collection with encouraging and empowering Biblical affirmations to help you create a joyful life by embracing God’s word. Let’s pray together!

PART 3: “HAVE NO FEAR OF DISASTER OR RUIN” BIBLICAL PRAYER

Father God, I thank you for your 3573 promises in my life, among which is this powerful promise to keep me from being overtaken by disaster and ruin.

“Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin, for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being trapped.” Proverbs 3:25-26

God, you gave me your promises AND my free will. You warned me that without works faith is dead. It’s up to me to trust your promises. Trusting your promises is not a theory; it’s a process through which is make decisions and take action. If I exercise my faith, I make decisions and take actions based on me believing your Proverbs 3:25-26 promise. It means that I’ll have hope when faced with pandemics and other disasters, that I’ll be productive every day knowing that the Lord is by my side, keeping me from ruin. Please help me, God, to deploy my free will and stay actively faithful every day even during trials and tribulations. Help me be focused on you and productive for you. I pray this in the marvelous name of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Amen.

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