"SHARING HOPE THROUGH SCRIPTURE ABOUT WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE AFRAID"

"SHARING HOPE THROUGH SCRIPTURE ABOUT WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU ARE AFRAID"

Psalm 55:3 “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.”
Psalm 55:4 “In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?”å

(Taken from today's reading in the One Year Bible September 12th, 2014)

Some explanatory thoughts, application, questions, and a prayer:

David was very well acquainted with life. And as a man whose heart was after the Lord, or towards the Lord, wanting to follow Him, he had many opponents who were against the rule and the reign of God through His king, King David. So David had many opportunities to look to God for help. In this he is an example to us. Because we also as people who desire to follow the Lord have a very real opponent and adversary whose sole purpose is to destroy you. But like David when we are afraid, and who is not, we can do what he did.
Let's enjoy seeing what we can do when we are afraid.

Note. In this particular Psalm David tells us why he was afraid. Here's how it reads in the NLT:

Psalm 55:1 “O God, have mercy on me. The enemy troops press in on me. My foes attack me all day long.”
Psalm 55:2 “My slanderers hound me constantly, and many are boldly attacking me.”

1. Whenever we are afraid.

Psalm 55:3 “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.”

It's helpful to note here that David is not saying, that there may come a time when I'm afraid, but rather he states that when he is afraid.
He understood that he would have these times.
Trials, attacks, etc, they do come.
We can be sure of it.

And these times can make us afraid.
They can take away our comfort.
Afraid mans dreadful, astonishment, to terrify, and to shoot.

2. We can trust in God.

Psalm 55:3 “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.”

So, we know that times of fear and terror will come.
And we know what we can do in those times.
In fact we can do this every time we are afraid.
We can do just what David did.
We can trust in God.

In other words, we can make the choice to turn away from our fear and to turn to God.
The word trust here means, to have confidence in, to hope, to be secure to feel safe, to be careless (free from fear).

3. We can praise the Lord in His Word.

Psalm 55:4 “In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?”

Here's an additional choice and action that David took, and so can we.
He not only trusted the Lord, but also praised God.

It's interesting to see how he wrote out this action.
"In God (will praise His Word)”
What does this mean?

It would seem that David knew his position, he was "In God”.
And, in God he would praise His Word.

For us, God has given us His Word.
In David's case he had the Old Testament.

We have both the Old Testament and the New Testament
And as we are in His Word, we see the Lord and all He has done for us.
And it causes us to praise Him.

Praising God is sure a lot better than being afraid of man.

4. We can trust God, and not be afraid of what man can do to us.

Psalm 55:3 “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.”

We can be just like David.
We can trust the Lord
We do not have to be afraid.
What a wonderful attitude of heart we can take.

Some Questions:

1. Do you have people pressing in upon you at this time in your life?

2. Do you have foes that are attacking you?

3. Do you have slanderers who are hounding you and are boldly attacking you?

4. Do you know that by God's grace and power you can do just as David did?

5. Do you know that you can trust God and you can praise God?

A Prayer:

Father, You talk about not being afraid more than anything else in the Bible. I'm told that You telling Your people not to fear, or not to be afraid, is the most often repeated statement You make in the Bible. It's no wonder, for we are in a world ruled by Satan. We live in a Spiritual battle ground, and fear is a normal reaction to our circumstances. Thank You for this record of what David did. It's so helpful to us. We can follow his footprint, and experience Your comfort. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Pastor Bob Grenier
Calvary Chapel Visalia.