Dealing With Fear

Scripture

The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?

~Psalm 27:1, NIV

Quote

I know not what the future holds but I know who holds the future.

~Stuart Hamblin

I love Psalm 27 and have since my childhood. It was one of the first passages that my mother taught me. It gives us both guidance and courage to deal with our fears. We see many of David’s fears coming to the surface in this Psalm.

  • He was afraid of death
  • He was afraid of his enemies
  • He was afraid of rejection
  • He was afraid of being disgraced

If we allow it to, fear will terrorize and paralyze us; it will render us ineffective and helpless. Everyone has some insecurity but some of us have more than others. Some are afraid of the dark. To be honest with you, I am not crazy about it myself. David understood that the LORD is our LIGHT so there is no need to fear darkness. But there many, many fears, some mentioned in Psalm 27 and some not. Some folks fear the future while others have a horror of failure. Everyone has some fear of rejection and other fear solitude, are being alone. It does not matter what you fear, the solution is faith in Jesus. The disciples were not by nature courageous men, the crucifixion is proof but they did learn to relax in the presence of Jesus. Certain things that they feared before knowing Christ, they learned not to fear. After seeing Jesus feed 20,000 people with one sack lunch, they did not fear going hungry. After seeing Jesus pull Peter from the water, they did not fear drowning. After seeing Jesus command the elements of nature, they did not fear storms. Fear is aggressive and it you don’t take action, it will consume you. Let me give you some tips:

  1. All fear, except the fear of God, is from the devil who himself is a terrorist. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. {2 Timothy 1:7}
  2. Memorize, meditate, read and quote the scriptures, especially to Satan. The very first verse my mother taught me is Psalm 56:3, “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.” When I got afraid, I didn’t quote it once, I quoted it over and over. Fear is really nothing more than a lack of faith and what one thing feeds are faith the most? The word of God. Jesus taught us in Matthew 4 that the scripture is the only way to overcome the doubt and fear that Satan hurls at each of us. David could make music and song. Psalm 27 is a song. I imagine he sang it over and over. A few years back, I counseled with a young man who had some real fear issues. I am not a professional counselor but my guess is that he had dabbled into some stuff that disturbs the mind. Let me say quickly: do not, under any circumstance, dabble in the occult. Do not watch or listen to anything occult related. By occult, I mean the biblical definition with would include: witchcraft, devil worship, animal sacrifice, any form of sexual perversion, porn or bad music. Just as we have good music to exalt Christ and edify our spirit, the occult has produced bad music to mess up your mind. Be very care what you look at and what you listen to. I listen to sermons from YouTube but not everything on YouTube is healthy. It might be wise to monitor what your children listen to or watch.
  3. Do not forsake the AssemblyAnd let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near. {Hebrews 10:25}. God designed us to need each other. He never intended for you to do this on your own. David loved corporate worship and so should we. Hanging out with other believers is healthy.
  4. Remember: The LORD Jesus Himself is our refuge and shelter. Twice in Psalm 27, David uses the word for Tabernacle. It is translated Sanctuary {safe place} in the NLT but the Hebrew word is ‘soke’ which comes from another Hebrew word ‘sakak’ which means liar or den. It refers to the shelter that an animal finds or makes for its own safety. These dens were in covert places which made it hard for their predictors to find. David’s hiding place, his place of shelter and safety was literally the LORD Himself. We must remember that Christ is always present and He is our refuge. Over the years I have learned to take sanctuary in HIM.

I spent most of the day visiting yesterday. Fuzz and Rose Mary Dobbins were telling me that they love to watch our worship on FACEBOOK live. They are still running test on Fuzz. I got to see Jamie Manley, Bro. Ron’s son and I visited with Mrs. Brown. I also checked on Dot and Roger. Roger continues to lose weight and they don’t know why. They changed Larry Garner’s medicine and he is having trouble sleeping. He goes to the doctor today. Please pray for all these folks. There are various problems associated with each case and prayer always helps.


Two thing I want to announce: Dr. Chuck Kelly will speak in the morning service on February 11. We need to make this FRIEND DAY and everyone bring a friend. This guy is the President of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and I have no idea how Joe David got him to come. The President I had in the 70’s didn’t even talk with students, let alone preach for them. But this is not the only factor: Dr. Kelly is the best story teller I’ve ever heard and he is a gifted evangelist. Trust me, no one will be bored and no one will be looking at the clock except for nursery workers and they have a pass.

Secondly: we are by faith planning a SENIOR ADULT FELLOWSHIP on Friday February 16, at 4:00 PM in the Parlor. We are going to have soup, salads, sandwiches and fried apple pies for our meal and then we are going to play BINGO. Darlene and Tina are my helpers and if you would like to donate a BINGO prize, give them some money. If you want to shop and get a prize–have at it–just be sure you tell Darlene or Tina. I hear that Darlene is going to be a Granny again–Congratulations Darlene and Ray.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *