Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“When the words were heard which David spoke, they rehearsed them before Saul; and he sent for him. David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.” David said to Saul, “Your servant was keeping his father’s sheep; and when a lion or a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, struck him, and rescued it out of his mouth. When he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, struck him, and killed him. Your servant struck both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, since he has defied the armies of the living God.” David said, “Yahweh, who delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Saul said to David, “Go! Yahweh will be with you.””
(1 Samuel 17:31-37)

“Yahweh is my light and my salvation.
    Whom shall I fear?
Yahweh is the strength of my life.
    Of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh,
    even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.
Though an army should encamp against me,
    my heart shall not fear.
Though war should rise against me,
    even then I will be confident.”
(Psalm 27:1-3)

Saul and the Israelites saw the contest in military terms. In terms of their ability to fight. Their own strength and their own stature. This is the same way the ten spies viewed things (Numbers 13:33). David didn’t approach things that way. He viewed the contest in terms of God. In terms of who was with God and who was not with God. David didn’t rely on his own stature or his own strength. He knew that he was less than what the situation needed. But he also knew that God was more than what the situation needed. He expected God to prevail and knew that God with him was enough because he had seen God’s goodness before (Psalm 27:13). David continually viewed the situation from God’s point of view and knew that since he was in covenant with God he could prevail because God was going to prevail.

Our own strength – no matter how great or small – is nothing compared to God’s strength and God’s capabilities. We live inside the ‘box’ of creation. God created the box. He can do anything He wants. He can play by the rules of the box, He can play by rules of the box we don’t understand, and He can do things that seemingly ‘break’ the rules of the box. He is not bound by us or by creation or by anything. Since God is so much more, when we are aligned with Him we have nothing to fear. We’re on the side that won. We’re on the side that overcame. We’re on the side that finished things. It doesn’t matter if the world or the devil or individual ungodly people or governments are still throwing a hissy fit. It’s OVER. When we see that and know it in our hearts, there is total freedom and peace (Philippians 4:7).

Summary

Jesus never failed. Not once. He had victory from day one. It was because He sided with the Father. God ALWAYS wins. The devil and the world can delay and hinder, but they cannot DEFEAT. We need to lean into that. We need to think on it and see it in the Word and listen to Holy Spirit talking to us about it. We need to KNOW that God WON. Past tense. Already taken care of. The head is off the body. We’re just running the clock out until the body stops thrashing. Whatever situation we are in, whatever circumstances we are in, whatever is trying to come on us, God is on top of it. He is above it. He will get us through. He will do the heavy lifting. We only need to align with Him, listen to Him, and obey Him because we’re humbly submitted and He is our Lord. If we do what He says, we’ll stay in the centre of His will. If we follow our Lord, we’ll realize that man can do NOTHING to us. No matter what it seems like, it doesn’t BEGIN to compare with what God has for us. God is MORE THAN ENOUGH for ANYTHING that comes up. Locally, individually, nationally, or globally. God is BIGGER. God is BETTER. God is GOOD.