How to Stop Living in Fear
A practical Christian study of “How to Stop Living in Fear,” with clear application for faith, relationships, and everyday life.
Living In Fear
Play the original Excel Still More episode here without leaving the article.
Name the struggle
And look, that's probably the episode I would have recorded a few months ago, but today our approach is much more optimistic than that. We will look at all of those different things and how it has affected even God's own people, but I'm convinced beyond a shadow of any doubt that living in the proper fear of God, understanding the magnitude of the power of God, and being completely captivated with Him is the fundamental Christian key to overcoming all of those carnalities, worries, anxieties, and fears that we're facing in this life.
I do want to be clear on that, and maybe I'll go ahead and take a few minutes and share with you the fears in the flesh that have had such a dominating effect on even people in Christ.
Understand what feeds it
I don't mean that I walk around terrified that he's angry with me or going to punish me, but I am petrified of what it would be like to face this universe builder having lived outside of his will. We respect his amazement so thoroughly that we just want to be with him and honor him, and we live with this peril, this dread in the back of our minds of what life would be like without him, subject to his destructive power.
So you see, it's not about a history lesson on the limitations of a government's power to destroy, it's a biblical lesson on the power that God has to destroy, which is the point Jesus was making in Matthew chapter 10.
Choose a steadier response
I cannot give anything the power to decide what I will say or not say, where I will go or not go, or how I will live, except God, because I live in fear of God, and I manage the difficulties of everything else. So that leaves room for reasonable behavior, things that maybe some people would even call compromises, but remember, you don't answer to those people either.
You will answer to the God who made you, and consulting him first and often, and measuring every decision against his presence and his glory is the only way to manage these other things.
Move forward with hope
They would have told you that they feared God, and maybe they did, but Nebuchadnezzar's army was the true power in their life. What if they had lived in complete submission and fear to the power of God and stood firm and stayed in their place, knowing that regardless of anybody else's actions, our God is greater.
So if you would like to test whom you really fear, then look back over this last, I don't know, maybe just a couple of months.
Take the idea with you.
- 01Where do I see the problem or opportunity described in “How to Stop Living in Fear” in my own life?
- 02What Scripture or spiritual principle in this study most needs my attention?
- 03What one specific change can I make this week to put this teaching into practice?
Prefer listening?
The original episode player is available near the top of this article, so you can listen without leaving the page.