God promises....there's no need to fear

You can put your whole weight on the promises of God

and He will hold you up

He will sustain you in seasons of trial

He will walk with you in daily paths

He says, "I'm God and I stake My reputation on the promise that

'I will never leave you nor forsake you.'"

The promise that God will always

be with you is no less than incredible.

 

Before we can fully rejoice in a cure for a disease, we must feel the pain and recognize the outcome of that ailment if no cure is applied. Likewise, before we can fully embrace the delight of God's promises, we must first suffer the desperation of our need. We can only grasp how exeedingly great and precious God's promises are when we realize how much we need them.

 

Dealing with fear is where God's promises are needed most...atleast in my own life. Fear is what drives me to make rash, impulsive decisions. Making decisions out of a fearful state of mind means trouble...believe me, I know this first hand.

 

To get my life back, I had to put fear in the ground...I had to shake it, and the only way that happened was by shining the light of God's promises on those fears. There would be so many times I would try to conquer fear myself and for a couple of days I would be ok....but nothing drives out fear like the loving promises of God.

 

So my question for you is....what are you afraid of?  What do you fear? We all have something that deep down in side scares us? Stop right now and identify that area in your life that is feeding on fear. Write it down. You're going to tackle this with some promises...so I hope you are willing to let go of this fear.... here we go.

 

The word fear is used 441 times in the Bible. Afraid is used 167 times; tremble, 101 times; and terror or terrified is used 121 times. Scripture identifies the overwhelming emotion of fear almost a thousand times.

 

As part of our study -- I am going to ask you to look up a couple of scripture references.  Don't worry...if you're reading this in a place where you can't get to a Bible right away, you can come back and check these out.  But if  you have your Bible handy, or want to look these up on www.biblegateway.com; check out what God has to say about fear. Take a moment to write down some of the descriptive or action words used in these passages (ex: deliver, heard your voice, stand firm)

 

Gen 15:1

Gen 21:17

Exodus 14:13

Psalm 23:4

I Chronicles 28:20

Jeremiah 1:8

Romans 8:15

2 Timothy 1:7

 

Fear expresses the opposite of all that Christianity is to be. Fear is the contradiction of faith. Faith says, "Whatever it is, it'll be okay because of God." Fear says, "It's not going to be okay....unless I try to do something about it. God surely isn't working on my situation." Fear doesn't think much about God at all.

 

Fear is the complete state of anti-God. God seldom seems further from you than when your heart is filled with fear. Fear is relying completely on your own resources and realizing suddenly that they aren't nearly enough to sustain you.

 

Let me say that again... Fear is relying completely on your own resources and realizing suddenly that they aren't nearly enough to sustain you.

 

Raise your hand if you've been guilty of thinking you could do it, fix it, solve it....and then realize in the deepest part of it that you can't.....that is a very scary realization.

 

The antidote for fear is the promise of God's presence. God is with you.

 

Go back over the verses that were listed above. Almost all of these passages come from a circumstance that seems to much to handle. And what is God's consistent theme in all of these verses....He is there, He hears, He understands and there is a safe place in His presence.

 

Take a moment to journal what it feels like to be in God's presence. Maybe jot down some descriptive words that tells how you feel. Maybe you'd be better writing a poem, jotting down a song or illustrating a picture. What ever your medium of choice....take mind, your heart and your soul back to a time when you felt God's presence. Describe it.

 

Take a couple of words that define that presence for you. Pick one of the scriptures from above that really hit home for  you. Take the two  - your words and your scripture - and post that somewhere you can see it when you'll need it most. Make it your screensaver at work. Post it on your dashboard. Tape it to the back of your cellphone. Stick it in your checkbook or wallet. You get the idea....remind yourself that you live with access to God's promises and His presence.