Every now and then, to use a sporting analogy, life throws you a curved ball aimed right at your solar plexus. When it hits, it knocks the wind out of you. And as you’re lying on the ground unable to breathe, panic sets in.

That happened to me a couple of times in my younger years when I was a goalie … and I can tell you, it ain’t pleasant. I still, to this day, remember the sheer panic of not being able to breathe.

And I think what makes it that much worse is the shock factor, the element of surprise – I just wasn’t expecting that.

Look, things happen in life that cause us to panic. They have in the past, and they’ll no doubt happen again in the future. And it’s in the midst of the panic that our faith seems to evaporate into thin air, have you noticed? Right when you need it … poof, it’s gone.

I was struck recently by something that Martin Lloyd Jones said: faith is a refusal to panic. And that, as things turn out, is an incredibly scriptural thing to say:

Psalm 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult. (NRSV)

There can scarcely be a scarier scenario than an earthquake – the ground shakes, the mountains fall into the sea, the waters roar and foam. Yikes. But the psalmist steadfastly, stubbornly even, refuses to panic. Why? Because … God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Be stubborn. Don’t panic. Trust Him.

That’s God’s Word.