Deliverance from All Fears

Psalms 34:1-7 ESV

 

“I will bless the Lord at all times;

    his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;

    let the humble hear and be glad.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me,

    and let us exalt his name together!

 

“I sought the Lord, and he answered me

    and delivered me from all my fears.

Those who look to him are radiant,

    and their faces shall never be ashamed.

This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him

    and saved him out of all his troubles.

The angel of the Lord encamps

    around those who fear him, and delivers them.”

 

Fear Instilled in Me

 

When I was growing up as a child, I had an extremely hateful, mean, and abusive father. He was a bully. He was scary. We never knew when his anger was going to flare up and when he was going to lash out at us verbally or physically. The anger would seemingly come out of nowhere.

 

So, fear was instilled in me all throughout my early years. And so, I subconsciously adopted this idea of God, of Jesus, that although he was there to love and comfort me, that he was powerless to rescue me. So, I carried that belief with me into adulthood.

 

Though consciously in my mind I felt that I believed in the sovereignty of God, that he was all powerful and in control over all things, my actions sometimes proved otherwise. My actions sometimes revealed what I honestly believed down deep within my heart. Fear was still at work.

 

The Lord took me through some difficult experiences in my life before I finally realized that I was not fully trusting in his sovereignty over my life, and that Jesus had truly defeated Satan on my behalf, and that I had the spiritual armor and the power I needed to defeat Satan and fear.

 

For, I had been trying to defeat Satan with a defeatist attitude, like I tried to avoid getting hit by my father. I knew I was going to get hit. It was inevitable. When I saw it coming, I crossed my arms in front of my face and retreated. And I did get hit. Every time.

 

When I Came to Understand

 

I came to understand that the spiritual armor supplied to me by God is what I needed to combat Satan and his weapons against me, and that I could refute his lies with the truth, and that I could respond to his attacks against me with the Sword of the Spirit, with full confidence that I would win.

 

And the reason that I could and can win is because Jesus already won that battle for me (for all of us). I just have to put on that spiritual armor and I have to exercise that faith, and speak that truth, and combat those lies, and to do so with confidence in my Lord and in what he did for me (for us).

 

So, if this is where you are because of similar experiences in your life, please know that the battle is already won. We are not to fight Satan like we are not convinced of that, or like we think he has power over us or that he could win. We are to fight our enemy with confidence in what Jesus did for us.

 

Thus, when our enemy comes against us to try to make us afraid, or to try to instill fear in our hearts, or to try to convince us that he still has power over us or that God is somehow limited or that God is not in control, we need to speak truth against those lies, and the peace will come.

 

And, lest this is a little confusing here that we are delivered from our fears, but that we are to fear God, know that the fear of God is to honor, respect, value, revere, and to obey him. So, when we walk in the fear (reverence) of our Lord, we are at peace, and we don’t live in fear of our circumstances.

 

I Can See Clearly Now

 

By Johnny Nash

 

I can see clearly now the rain is gone

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshinin' day

It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshinin' day

 

Oh yes, I can make it now the pain is gone

All of the bad feelings have disappeared

Here is the rainbow I've been praying for

It's gonna be a bright, bright sunshinin' day…

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FscIgtDJFXg

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