by Susie Gilliland

Created on: July 14, 2008   Last Updated: July 15, 2008

A short teaching on living in fear or in the peace God offers.

Fear is simply defined as a feeling you have when you think danger or pain is near. We have all felt fear and know the effect it can have in our lives when we let it control us. Sometimes we experience so many disappointing and hurtful situations in our lives that fear becomes our first response. The intimidating student at school, the unkind sibling or stepsibling at home,many things can cause feelings of fear to become stirred up within you. Hoping you do well on a final exam you didn't study for or possibly not turning in a project worth half your history grade is a reason to feel fear. Well, we know what the dictionary says fear is but what does God say fear is? I believe that God tells us many times in his word that fear is from the enemy. Fear is a commanding force that the enemy uses to control and keep us from fulfilling God's will in our lives. In Mark 3:27 it says, "No one can enter a strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man."

The Lord is simply saying the enemy cannot steal your peace without binding you up first. The "house" he is referring to is you and in order to steal your peace he must bind you up, and the way he binds us up is with good old trusty fear. Fear is nothing more than a lie used to trick us into being useless to God. In this I mean if the enemy can whisper in your ear " Your never going to finish that" or " What if I mess up and every one laugh's at me?" he has formed both fear and doubt within you. He has taken your eyes off of God, his will and blessing for your life and in turn refocused you on the " giant" standing before you. Now you're to busy trembling and hiding from the "giant" that you haven't even noticed the paradise just beyond your massive problem. That's the way he wants you, frozen with fear and useless to God and missing out on the astonishing plans he has for your life.

The great news is that you can overcome fear and defeat the many "Giants" that dare come against you. You can find peace even in the midst of great difficulty and challenges. You can overcome and defeat fear just as David did with Goliath. What aided David so greatly in his victory was he did not see the giant standing before him. No, what he saw was God " The Lord does no save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand's" 1 Sam. 17:47 David did not trust in his physical sight but only in his spiritual

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>