Now let me ask you
What are you afraid of
A better question would be how do you respond
to fear
How you respond
to your fear
Is what determines how much power it will have over you
How has fear hindered you from living the life you want to live
How is fear stop you from accomplishing your goals
Don't let fear steal your life
Don't let fear steal your relationships. Don't let fear steal your joy
God wants you to have a good life
But one thing's for sure you have an enemy
His name is satan or the devil and he does not want you to enjoy your life
He wants you to be afraid all
the time
Fear is expecting the devil to move faith is expecting God to move
And we choose
You can put your eyes on the devil or eyes on God
Here's what you need to understand about the nature of the devil. He's an opportunist
When you're the weakest, he's the most evil
The devil doesn't control our thoughts but he influences our thoughts he he wants to whisper thoughts of fear to us, so we'll accept them
And he can control our lives God God will never use fear to control your lives and when you read in the bible
It says the fear of the Lord, that means a reverence of God
That does not mean a negative emotion. It means a positive emotion
A reverence for God God will never
Never bring fear into your life to cause you to do anything
The devil wants you to believe that God's always kind of mad at you and he really doesn't like you
That's the concept of God
The devil wants you to have your high priest is madly in love with you and when you go to Jesus and you say Jesus
I'm tempted
And I'm feeling fearful Jesus says this I experienced that I know exactly what you're feeling
Let me help you overcome it
Because I have my faith in Jesus
I don't have to approach the throne with fear and trembling thinking God doesn't want to hear from me
You know what
God gets so excited about hearing your voice every time you come
And every time you pray he's so excited to hear what you have to say
And he wants to help you and he wants to do things for you
But you have to believe and believe all the way
through
If you let fear rule your life you're never going to find out about the wonderful life that God has for you
Do not be afraid
Do not be afraid, you know, the bible says do not be afraid or fear not one of those two things
365 times the bible says do not be afraid or fear not
365 times that's one for every day of the year
You can take that with you from January all the way through to December do not be afraid
The commandment do not fear
Or fear not is the number one commandment in the bible God did not create us to live in fear
It's the opposite of the way that he created us God created us to live in peace
And there's really only one way
to conquer
And overcome fear and that's with faith when fear knocks on your door
Send faith to answer
Fear and faith are two opposing
forces
We receive everything
from God by faith
And we receive everything the enemy wants for us
by fear
Faith brings a victory into your life. What is faith faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things
not seen now let's think about that. What is it. It's the substance of things that you hope for
But don't see yet
the evidence of things that you do not see
But fear
is actually
believing for the negative
It fear is the evidence of things we don't hope for
And the substance of things we don't want to see happen
So we really must learn to choose
to live
by faith
And that just simply means putting your trust in God
Believing that he loves you that he sent Jesus to die for you that he has a good plan for your life
And that he's promised to never leave you or forsake you
Many of the places in the word of God where the bible says do not fear
The only reason that they give for not fearing is because I am with you
God says do not fear for I am with you. He says do not be afraid because I'm with you
He says do not be afraid because I'm for you
He says do not be afraid because I love you. Do not be afraid because I am your God
See ultimately
Fear is a matter of perspective
Fear is a matter of
perspective how you view something either by faith or by fear will determine whether or not
You run toward it or you run away from it
Fear is a response to a set of possibilities
The devil would love for you to live by fear
Because when you're afraid you run away
Fear makes you want to run away from from what you need to run to
Let me say this if if you could see God how he really is you would run toward him and you'd never feel fear again
He is madly in love with you he understands not just your issues but why you have those issues
And he wants you to come to him and let him mercifully and graciously help you
Jesus said I'm humble and gentle
And you'll find rest for your souls in my presence
Do you know that the word fear
Doesn't mean to shake or tremble or to be nervous the word fear means to take flight or to run from
So when God says in his word do not fear for I am with you what he's really saying is
Fear is going to come to you but when you feel it, don't run
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today
I wonder how many opportunities God has put in front of you
to do great things
And yet you are afraid of the unknown
So you stayed in what you think is the safe zone
Your new
Attitude toward life has to be I will not fear. I didn't say you wouldn't feel fear
But you're not going to give in to fear because God is with you
Focusing on your fear instead of having faith and the one who holds your tomorrow is foolish
Focusing on your fear instead of having faith in the one who holds your tomorrow. It is foolish
Don't do it
Put our mind on the things of God not on our fear
Being afraid is not trusting God
Don't let anything cause you not to trust God
Don't take anyone's opinion more highly than what God says about you what he says to you in his word
No matter who's against you
And no matter who tells you that you're not enough and you can't and you'll never be able to
If God is with you you can do anything that God asks you to do. It's time for you to live a braver life
It's time for you to step out and find out what all you're capable of
And I really think it's time for us to really go back to believing that all things are possible with God
And sometimes I don't think it's so much that we doubt that God can do it
But we doubt that he will do it for us
We have doubts about ourselves
It's fear that causes us to doubt that God loves us and has a plan for us
You've got to get over what you're afraid of in order to walk in the best of what God has for you
You have got to get over what you are afraid of in order to walk in and experience the best of what God has
for you
God put the best things in life on the other side of fear
You know when God says fear not
He's not telling us not to feel fear. I actually think it's kind of a a warning that you will
Feel fear and I think that fear is the main thing that satan uses to try to control people
fear
Keeps you from going forward how many things do you think that the enemy has stolen from you
or kept you from doing just because
of fear
and so we have to learn that we don't have to bow down to fear just because we feel
fear
courage is
Actually taking forward motion in the presence of fear courage is not not feeling fear
Courage is feeling the fear and doing what you believe God wants you to do anyway
He didn't say that things won't be scary. Uh, he just said don't be afraid
God didn't say everything's gonna be peachy. Everything's gonna be easy. No, in fact, he said in this world you will have trouble
But I have overcome
He didn't say it was going to be easy he just said don't be afraid
Do not be afraid to accept Christ or to turn back to him
Do not be afraid to repent of your sins no matter where you are. No matter what's going on
There's nothing you could do that would ever make God love you less. Do not be afraid
And do not be afraid
to live for him
You want to know really why you don't have to be afraid
Because God loves you
And nothing you are facing and nothing you will ever face can stop his love