Dealing With Fear

I want to talk to you about how we prosper personally. I do not necessarily mean financially, but in our personal well-being. I’m talking about God’s desire to bring us into wholeness. This is linked to our ability to move forward into God’s purpose for us. To advance. We could talk about a lot of things that hold us back. We can talk about different kinds of sins or problems, weaknesses, doubt, unbelief, fear, hope deferred. All those things are legitimate. But fear is what I think is the most prevalent thing holding us back. Fear keeps so many people from experiencing all that God has for them. Even if you don’t think you are affected by this, open your heart to it. I think there are very few people who are not touched by this in one area of their lives or another. I think this is much more prevalent than we realize. 

There were several years of my own life where I was controlled by fear, and I didn’t know it. I just thought it was my quirky personality. God began to show me in how many ways my personality was formed by fear of rejection. I am going to talk about fear in a broad sense, because many of us are touched by it, but we fear different things. I’ll be using Genesis 20 with references to Genesis 18 as our springboard into this discussion. We’ll look at the example of Abraham. Now, you know that mostly the testimony of Abraham is good. God has a lot of wonderful things to say about Abraham. However, there was a point in his life that fear almost cost him the destiny God had for him. 

This is the guy called “the Father of Faith”. He made it into the Hebrews 11 “Hall of Faith” passage. That doesn’t change the fact that there was a point in his life where fear almost destroyed what God wanted to do through him. (To be continued.)

“When I needed the Lord, I looked for Him; I called out to Him, and He heard me and responded. He came and rescued me from everything that made me so afraid.” (Psalms 34:4; VOICE)

Give Him 15 minutes in prayer:

  • Read Genesis 18 and 20. Ask the Lord for revelation as you do. Don’t just think “Oh, I know this story.”
  • Ask the Lord what fear may be holding you back if you don’t already know.
  • Do a brief Bible study on that fear and ask the Lord to apply those scriptures as a sword to it. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed!
  • Declare, “When I needed the Lord, I looked for Him; I called out to Him, and He heard me and responded. He came and rescued me from everything that made me so afraid.”

A prayer you can pray:

Father, I desire to fulfill all that You have planned for me. I want to experience Your full blessings. I do not want the enemy to divert me from what You have created me for. As I read and study Genesis 18 and 20, speak to me Holy Spirit. Open my eyes and show me what I haven’t seen before. I think of Abraham as one of the most faith-filled men in the Bible. His life is such an example of faith for us. He trusted You to fulfill Your promises, even though it seemed like You tarried. We know, of course, that he was very human and he struggled to wait. Where was fear involved? Show me. Show me my own stronghold of fear, if there is one. Help me be willing to hear You. Use your Word to carve it away from my heart until I fully trust You. Love is the antidote to fear. When I know how much You love me, I won’t be able to fall into the enemy’s fear-traps. Deliver me, Jesus. When I need you, I will look for You; I will call out to You, and You will hear me and respond. You will come and rescue me from everything that has made me so afraid. Amen.

Today’s decree:

God is faithful to deliver us from all our fears!