That is why fear is dangerous; it doesn’t look like it can entrap you and stop you from your goals or like it can steal your faith or affect your ability to fulfill your purpose and your destiny in God. It doesn’t look like that but it ends up doing just that.
Your trust determines your peace. Who are you trusting? What are you trusting? This is very important if you want to be able to overcome your fears and your anxiety because some of us get anxious when the thing we trust disappoints us; we become fearful.
In African culture, most of our beliefs or knowledge of God is inherited from our parents. Mine too. I was raised in a family where serving God was not your choice to make, it was not an option. Faith was something you just had to do, whether you knew how. And for a long time, I went to church, but I didn’t have an intimate or personal relationship with God. But thank God that I at least had a little foundation from my parents, because that was what I needed to go from seeing Him as their God to seeing Him as my God. I got to a point in my life where I started to see God as my God, not just as my parents’ God.
What do you say of God? You might be wondering why what you say about the Lord is important but it is. What you say is important, period. Our words are powerful. It has the power of life and death; It has creative power. It not only shapes your perception but your reality.
To be in/under someone’s shadow can mean a couple of things. But in this context, it means to be living under the influence, track record, history, achievement, and reputation of that person.
This psalmist, which is believed to be Moses, hid in the secret place of the Most High. The secret place is where the presence of God resides. In his day, this was a physical place. God resided between the cherubims on top of the ark in the Most Holy place (Holy of Holies). That place was so secret, only a few people had access and the process to gain access was no child’s game. You could even die, trying to hide. It was so safe that no one could just walk in there searching for you and come out alive.
This is a popular scripture on anxiety and my personal favorite, rightly so. It not only says what not to do but what to do. First, I believe that as a member of this tribe, you already know by now that anxiety and worry are manifestations of fear. So you have to come out of it.
Sometimes we come up on seasons when life demands much more than we can give and we just can’t deal. But ever so often, instead of realizing it’s beyond our scope we put ourselves under pressure trying to attain what we do not have so we can meet up with the demands.
Can we talk about the courage he had even to the point of death? This Usher used the opportunity of his accusation as a medium to spread the gospel. His life was threatened, but he still gave a sermon. Even in death, he must still speak of Jesus. Ah! The audacity, the confidence, the courage, and as if that wasn’t enough he prayed for their forgiveness as they killed him. Chills But all this was not in vain. This murder introduced us to a man named Saul. who we know and love as Paul the Apostle.
Now I know that today’s topic sounds strange and you might be thinking, I joined this devotional to gain the courage to pursue my dreams and not to get beaten. You’re almost right. You see, the OUT OF FEAR Devotional is designed to help you defeat fear and acquire the courage you need to move in the direction of God. However, I do not know if that direction for you is taking a beating, literally or figuratively but I do know that it comes with the territory.
