Fear

Fear

MY QUESTION for GOD

What do I do when I feel paralyzed by fear?

A MOMENT with GOD

This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there. . . . But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!” But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!”

Numbers 13:27-31

Fear is real, and fear is normal—but it can paralyze us. When the Israelite spies returned from scouting out the Promised Land, they faced an issue of reality versus distortion. The reality was that God had already promised that the Israelite people would conquer the land (see Exodus 3:8; Leviticus 20:24). The fact that God himself ordered the scouts into the land should have given them great confidence. The distortion of reality came from the giants that seemed bigger and more immediate than God’s promise. Fear can distort your view of reality. It makes the giants in your path appear more powerful than your almighty God, who promises to deliver you. Sooner or later you will face fearsome giants in your life—an especially great temptation, guilt, sin, anger, anxiety, depression, or something else. Don’t let the size of the giant reduce the size of your God!

DIVINE PROMISE

I HOLD YOU BY YOUR RIGHT HAND—I, THE LORD YOUR GOD. AND I SAY TO YOU, “DON’T BE AFRAID. I AM HERE TO HELP YOU.”   Isaiah 41:13