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Fear Not!
Lesson Seven

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PAUSE this video and read Chapter Seven of your textbook: Do Not Be Afraid! - Applying God’s Word. Be sure to pray the prayer at the end of the chapter.

We need to develop a trust and love for the Word of God. Every great man or woman of God throughout history has had a love for the Word of God. They have invested time in it even when their lives were hectic. In many cases, the busier they got, the more time they believed they needed for study and prayer.

I prayed for Faith, and thought that some day Faith would come down and strike me like lightning. But Faith did not seem to come. One day, I read in the tenth chapter of Romans, 'Now Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God'. I had closed my Bible and prayed for Faith. I now opened my Bible and began to study, and Faith has been growing ever since. Dwight L. Moody.

Do not have your concert first, and then tune your instrument afterwards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into harmony with Him. Hudson Taylor

Because I am a Christian, therefore, every day in which I do not penetrate more deeply into the knowledge of God's Word in Holy Scripture is a lost day for me. I can only move forward with certainty upon the firm ground of the Word of God. And, as a Christian, I learn to know the Holy Scriptures in no other way than by hearing the Word preached and by prayerful meditation. Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Praying the Word of God is powerful. And that is what our assignments today will be focused on.

Read Mark 4:36-41

Realize that the disciples were in a genuinely dangerous situation. Many of them were experienced fishermen. They knew when they were in trouble. Death was not far away. In their fear, they woke up Jesus, who was peacefully sleeping through it all. Jesus dwelt with the immediate cause of their fears, but He was surprised by their fear and lack of faith. He knew His Father was in absolute control, why couldn’t they see it?

Fear is actually a form of faith. It is faith in the problem rather than faith in God. It is faith in disaster and death rather than faith in the love and protection of God. The disciples had faith in what they were experiencing, not in a loving Father, so fear overwhelmed them. Jesus had faith in His loving Father, not faith in the storm whipping around Him, so He was fearless and could handle the situation with complete confidence. In what or who is our faith? Our level of fear will reveal where our faith is.

Our textbook gives us three weapons in defeating fear.

1. Knowing God Is With Us

The Holy Spirit is within us and with us. As Paul said in Romans 8, nothing can separate us from the love of God. We can walk into every situation with confidence, knowing that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, is with us.

2. Using God’s Word

We know Jesus defeated satan by using the Word of God. He was able to do that because He knew the Word of God in advance, so the Holy Spirit could bring the appropriate Scriptures to mind as He needed them. In the heat of battle is not generally the time to be running to a concordance trying to find a Scripture. We need to have the Word of God hidden in our hearts. Even if it is not in our conscious memory, the Holy Spirit can draw it out of our subconscious. But He can’t draw out what was never there! Also, because Jesus knew the Word of God, He could recognize when it was being used out of context and abused. Scripture can be twisted to say anything. We need to be able to recognize when it is being mishandled.

3. Believing With Our Heart

As well as reading examples of faith in Scripture, reading biographies of Christian men and women can inspire us and strengthen our faith.

Do not believe the mental images or internal movies that run in our minds to motivate fear. As soon as they start playing, deliberately choose to turn your mind to the things of God. It is impossible to think both fear and faith thoughts at the same time.

Assignment

1. Memorize Rom. 8:31-39.

2. Sign up for our 90 Days of Thanksgiving course, if you have not already done so. This course will send you one selection of Scripture every day for 90 days, which you will then turn into a prayer of thanksgiving. Be sure to read and pray each Scripture as it comes. [Check your spam filter if you seem to miss a receiving one.]

3. Read one Psalm every day and then turn it into a prayer. Longer Psalms you may want to break up into two or more days. When you are finished with all 150 Psalms, repeat.

Return to the Lessons.

For more information about Glenn Davis, see our About Glenn page or visit Glenn Davis Books.

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