When Fear Limits Your Joy

Ciao bella! Photo by Murielle Schuller

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"There is only one way

I can get ready for immortality;

and that is love this life,

and live it bravely

and cheerfully

and as faithfully as I can."

--Henry van Dyke

When Fear Limits Your Joy

Marie Chapian

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READ Psalm 35:1-36:12

SITUATION David begged God to rescue him from those who sought his demise. He recognized the wickedness of his enemies and asked God to intervene.

OBSERVATION God fights on behalf of his children.

INSPIRATION You feel unsafe, unsure?

You don't like to be alone.

Your frightened, and fear limits the joy you experience in your life. You're trapped in an adventure less existence. What are you afraid of? Pain? Rejection? Are you afraid of making a mistake? Of getting hurt? Of being robbed or killed? Or of getting a disease?

. . . . Did you know I am never afraid, worried, frenzied or never driven with terror? Did you know that your Lord is at peace always? Did you know my Spirit -- the same as is in me -- lives in you?

I have built a wall of protection around you so that the invisible dragons of the night will not harm you . . . I save you from the troubles and dangers of the daytime, I am for you. Who can be against you?

But you worry.

You worry because of past experiences when you were hurt. You are afraid to be hurt again. You are afraid I won't keep my word. You are afraid I don't care about you. but I do care. Every hair on your head is numbered.

. . . See Me surrounding you and keeping you from evil. See Me bringing you up out of a horrible pit, lifting you gently out of the miry clay of fear and worry. See yourself completely safe, with your feet upon a rock, established in the ways of God. (From His Thoughts Toward Me by Marie Chapian)

APPLICATION When you face battles in life, write them in a prayer journal. Wait on our Defender and record his victory in your journal. This will build you faith.

EXPLORATION Fighting-- Exodus 14:13-14; 1 Samuel 17:45-47; 2 Chronicles 20:15-17; Nehemiah 4:20; Reomans 12:19.


The Devotional Bible - Experiencing the Heart of Jesus, Max Lucado General Editor, New Century Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers

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WORDS TO WARM THE HEART

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"Our dissatisfaction with any other solution is the blazing evidence of immortality." Ralph Waldo Emerson

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"I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance." William Faulkner

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"The wicked have a never-dying worm and the godly a never-fading crown." Thomas Watson

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"Some people keep on doing good, and seek glory, honor, and immortal life; to them God will give eternal life." Romans 2:7

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"Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit." Galatians 6:7-8