Question : How can I fight fear and doubt? Answer 3: In James 4:7, the bible says, “…Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” How do you resist the devil? You stand your ground on God’s word. You’ve got to know the word of God first and stand on it. That means put your faith in God’s word; stand on God’s word. Fear, actually, is trusting in the ability of your adversary or in the ability of your enemy or in the potentiality of all that’s negative against you—that’s what fear is. It means you trust everything else that can make you fail or that can destroy you; you trust in the negative. Don’t trust the ability of your enemy, trust in God. Now, trust in God is faith, faith in His word. Trust in the ability of your enemy or your adversary or in adversity is fear—that’s what produces fear. You know, the more you hear about destructive situations or negative circumstances, adverse circumstances – the more you hear of them – the more faith you have in their ability to accomplish their purposes and that produces fear in you (a lack of confidence in yourself, a lack of confidence in God’s presence, a lack of confidence in God’s love). Now, to deal with that, you need to hear God’s word. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:7; it says, “…we walk by faith, and [not by sensory perception], not by sight.” See! And then, the bible says, “While we look not [2 Corinthians 4:18] at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” So, our faith must be on those things that are not seen by the optical eyes. Then again, there’s something very important that I’d like to read to you from 1 John 5:3-4, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” He says, “this is the love of God, that we keep His word (we keep His commandments).” Now, the commandments here don’t refer to the commandments of Moses but the instructions given to us in the New Testament. It’s talking about His commandments; it’s His instructions that He’s given to us, His word—that is. So, the love of God is proved by keeping His word. And then He says, “his commandments are not grievous.” [1 John 5:3]. And then, secondly, He says, “For whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world: this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith” [1 John 5:4]. No matter what you hear, no matter what produces fear in your life, faith [our faith] overcomes the world. It says [Pastor Chris repeats the above scripture], “…this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” Lastly, there’s another scripture I want to read to you. First, the same 1 John 4, but this time, verse 18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.” [1 John 4:18-19] If you love God, you prove it by doing His word; you do whatever He’s told you to do in His word—that’s the proof that you love God. You don’t say you love God just because of an emotion in your heart; you prove it in your action. Then He says, “There is no fear in love.” If you love God and you know that He loves you, because He says, in the 19th verse, “We love him, because he first loved us.” So, there’s a reciprocal love here; He loves you and then you love Him. So, He says here, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” If you live in fear, you are not perfected in love; that’s what it says. “There is no fear in love; but, He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” He that feareth is not made perfect in love, because there is no fear in love. I’ll read that 18th verse to you again, He says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.” So, you don’t really have to fight fear; you don’t really have to fight doubt. He says perfect love casteth out fear. No need for an effort on your part! If you will walk in love, trust in God’s love and love Him, you’ll have no fear; that’s what He says. That perfect love is proved in your life as you walk in His word. That’s what we read in the 3rd verse of the 5th chapter. It says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.” [Pastor reads 1 John 4:18] “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” Same thing with doubt; your doubts drown, your doubts flee from you when you increase your faith in God’s word. And to increase your faith in God’s word is to hear God’s word. God’s word produces faith. It says, “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” [Romans 10: 17]. The more of God’s word you hear, the more faith comes to you and then your doubts are dissipated. So, faith is what you need.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Jan 2014 23:17:31 +0000
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