PSALM 34:4 – I sought the LORD, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears

THEME OF THE DAY. DOING OUR PART. As a new believer, I remember hearing the words from a preacher, “Just let go and let God.” Perhaps you heard similar words in your walk with the Lord. And it sounded really good. In my case, the intent from the preacher was the necessity of submission to the Lord. As for his intent, submission is a Biblical truth and practice, however, the statement “let go and let God” lacks any Biblical support. Just letting go and thinking God is going to “do all the work” in our walk with Him is a foreign concept in our Bibles. We find nowhere in scripture that living the Christian life is effortless or passive on our part. Words like “fight, strive, seek, sought, be diligent, keep, labor” and other actions fill the pages of God’s Word pointing His people to “doing our part” when it comes to walking with Him. And this is illustrated in today’s scripture in an area each us face in life – fear.

Fear is like Joseph’s coat of many colors. It has variety. There is the fear of people, fear of the future, fear our children will not turn out right, fear of financial emergencies, fear of getting a fatal disease (by the way, we all have one – sin), the fear of failure, and the list goes on and on. Each of us may make a hefty list of various things causing us fear. Some are the kind that may even tempt us to hide from the world and never want to come out from under the covers in the morning! And the Bible does not hide human expressions of fear. Read of the disciples in the Gospels and David in the Psalms to see how even the “best” of God’s children experienced heart-wrenching and paralyzing fear.

In today’s scripture is one of those examples in David’s life of a fearful time. And in his fear, he shows us two things to help us overcome any fear. Let’s look at them in reverse order.

First, fear is only conquered by God – “He (the Lord) answered me and delivered me from all my fears.” The Bible teaches us there are two types of fear – sinful and godly. Sinful fear comes from the devil and our sin. It is part of our fallenness or total depravity. It cannot be defeated by human strength try as we may. The other fear is that of God and given at new birth. When a person becomes a Christian, God writes His fear on the individual’s heart – “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me” (Jeremiah 31:33). So, the first step in overcoming fear is admitting we cannot, but that doesn’t lead to a “flare prayer” of “God deliver me from fear” and then sit around waiting for the “holy zap” from heaven removing our fear. If that is our approach, we will not conquer any fear. God expects us to do our part. And the first of our part is to admit we cannot do this. That leads to the second application from David’s model in overcoming fear.

We will overcome fear when we seek the God who overcomes our fear. This seeking is in two spiritual disciplines; fervent prayer to get close to our conquering God and diligence in His Word to know our conquering God. To simply lift an “emergency-type” prayer to heaven in time of fear while neglecting a commitment to fellowshipping prayer with God is not the seeking David models. Nor can we be confident in God to deliver us if we barely know Him due to neglecting His Word. Notice that God did deliver David from his fears but not until David did his part – seeking God. And it will be the same for us.

So, as we encounter various fears in life, don’t buy into a false theology of “let go and let God.” Instead follow David’s model of seeking the God who will conquer all our fears as we draw near to Him.

PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for Your delivering power over all my fears.”

QUOTE: “Life of faith is not ‘let go and let God’. There is spiritual diligence God requires of us”