Not Driven by Fear

Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.

To be faithful to God we must fight fear and determine not to be driven by it.

Certainly, we need to do everything we can to follow the steps of wisdom. For example, if your fear is health related, then you should be careful to follow the best medical science. Surely, God gave us a mind to think and act wisely.

However, using your mind and acting wisely is not the only issue. God also gave us a heart to trust Him, and that raises the question of where our ultimate security lies.

The anxious heart can manufacture an endless list of “what ifs.” But to live at all in this world is to risk the “what if.” We are contingent beings living in a contingent universe. We cannot possibly know all the “what ifs.” You cannot possibly predict every particular of your future. And there’s a reason for this—a reason why God has not told you the particulars of your future. Why? Because He wants us to trust Him.

This is the thinking that drives the heart of David in Psalm 27 (v. 1 ESV):

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?

We are contingent beings. Therefore, all fear is not necessarily bad. However, God intends all fear to drive us to faith, to the One who knows the end from the beginning.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
One thing have I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to inquire in his temple.
For he will hide me in his shelter
in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
he will lift me high upon a rock.”

~ Psalm 27:1-5 (ESV)

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