God Used My Great Fear to Get My Attention

Sheri Wohlfert tells the story of what happened at the intersection of her great fear and God's great love. 

I say, then: live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)  

For as long as I can remember I have been terrified of snakes. The size and danger don’t matter: I lump them all into the same category: terrifying! I know God made them, I know they have an important role in the balance of nature, but none of that matters to me. I’m not sure where this fear is rooted but the mere picture of a snake is enough to catch my breath and make me shiver in horror. 

I remember seeing a huge boa constrictor in a glass cage at the zoo, and my kindergarten teacher held my hand for thirty minutes until I stopped trembling. I always told my students they could bring any kind of creature or critter to show the class except a snake … I’d laugh and tell them I would faint, and they would flunk! You will never find me lifting up a big rock or peeking into a dark place outside, and a trip to the jungle will never be on my bucket list because I’d spend every minute of the trip thinking a giant snake would fall from a tree onto my head.   

The History of my Fear 

For decades I’ve tried to reason my way out of this silly, giant fear but still it sticks with me. Recently, though, it proved to be a powerful thing. I was listening to Jeff Cavins on the Hallow app one morning, and he was talking about this verse from Galatians. I thought quite a bit about the trouble our flesh gets us into. I thought about the desires we have and the overwhelming need to feel comfortable. We don’t like to suffer or struggle, and we want what we want, when we want it. I think it’s the flesh that makes us selfish and stubborn and all of those things are what lead to sin. 

Sin is what happens when we don’t follow the Spirit … when we do what we want instead of what the Father wants. I would imagine a good many of us wake up every morning asking God to help us follow His Spirit, His plan, and His way — but then life happens, and we get sidetracked. He isn’t surprised and He isn’t leaving us because of it, thank goodness, but we’re always striving to do better and I’m betting each of us start our day asking for help to follow more closely and sin less. 

A Rotten Fear Used for Good 

As I was thinking about all these things, Jeff got to a point in his conversation when he started talking about the common fear of snakes and I immediately snapped to attention. He went on to ask, “What would happen to us if we were as afraid of sin as we are of snakes?” As much as I try to avoid thinking about snakes, the thought is still stuck in my head. I think I’d do just about anything to avoid snakes, but I should be able to say the same thing about avoiding sin or things that lead to sin. Since I’m the kind of person who likes to “see” things, this has been a powerful image — and for once in my life, thinking about snakes has a purpose. 

A Seed to Plant:

Make a list of things in your life you should be more afraid of than snakes and then take them to the Lord and ask for His Spirit to lead you in His path. 

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Copyright 2025 Sheri Wohlfert
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