Overcoming Fear with Faith: Finding Strength in Isaiah 41:10-13

Fear not {there is nothing to fear}, for I am with you; do not look around you in terror and be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen and harden you to difficulties, yes, I will help you; yes, I will hold you up and retain you with My {victorious} right hand of rightness and justice.”

Behold, all they who are enraged and inflamed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; they who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.

You shall seek those who contend with you but shall not find them; they who war against you shall be as nothing, as nothing at all.

For I the Lord your God hold your right hand; I am the Lord, Who says to you, Fear not; I will help you!”  Isaiah 41: 10-13.  AMP

This is one of my favorite scriptures.  There have been times when I have been so overwhelmed with the happenings of life that I could barely breathe and yet I clung to this scripture.

FEAR NOT!

Fear was the biggest obstacle that I had to face and all of the “what ifs”.  The “what ifs” will destroy your peace and joy, and eventually, they will destroy you.  “What ifs” are from the enemy of our soul.

 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly. John 10:10 NASB

Here are some of my “what ifs” over the years: What if my husband loses his job?  What if we go bankrupt because our business is failing? What if I can’t make my house payment? What if I never get over being sick and tired? What if I can never shake this depression and anxiety? What if I never fulfill my purpose? What if my children are harmed? What if someone breaks into our home? What if my husband doesn’t get well?

The “what ifs” will make you lose trust in the Lord and His promises, shake you to your core, and make you doubt God’s love.

The Lord says there is nothing to fear!  It doesn’t matter what comes against you; there is nothing to fear!  He is with you.  He tells you to not look at the fear or dwell on it and be discouraged, He is your God!  Fear is a spirit.

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” II Timothy 1:7. NASB

Fear can also affect your emotions and can be most debilitating.  Fear will paralyze you. It will cause you to freeze up and keep you from the joys in life.  It will make you doubt the love of God.  Fear is a liar and we all know the identity of the father of lies.  Joyce Meyer said that fear is False Evidence Appearing Real.  We worry for nothing at times because ninety percent of the things we worry about never happen. There have been times when I was so overcome with fear, I was incapacitated. There was a time when I had been fighting it for five years, and I needed help.  I called on my sisters in Christ for help.  Call on someone who knows how to pray and ask them to pray for you.  You are not in this alone. We need each other.  God made us to need each other. Those in Christ will hold you up when you are too weary to do it.

I WILL STRENGTHEN YOU AND HARDEN YOU TO DIFFICULTIES

This Scripture also tells me that there is a reason that all of us go through hard times. The Amplified Bible says He will strengthen and harden you to difficulties.  We need to see things through God’s perspective. He sees the larger plan for your life.  Nothing takes Him by surprise.

There are some difficulties that don’t go away immediately, because He is hardening us to them. I would encourage you today and say that whatever difficulty you are facing, God is making you stronger and that there is purpose for what you are going through.  Our trials make us stronger.

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. James 1:2-4. NASB

I can honestly say that I have more peace today because of what I went through. As difficult as it was, I have been given a hard shell to those difficulties.

I remember that I prayed and passionately asked God for a word and that I needed a word spoken to me for what I was going through at the time. That was on a Saturday. A friend of mine sat in front of me at church the next day and at the end of worship, she turned around and told me that God told her to tell me that He was doing a work in me.  I didn’t want to hear that at the time!  I wanted God to tell me that I was being delivered or something else more encouraging.  Come on, Lord!

He knows what He is doing.  Sometimes, we want out of our wilderness before the lesson is learned.  I was in the wilderness, and God was right there with me. He was hardening me to difficulties.  He wasn’t punishing me.  He was helping me become stronger, and it was all for His glory.

Many years ago, when we went through a severe financial crisis.  I was scared.  Money was so tight that we had to buy groceries a couple of days at a time so that nothing would go to waste. One time I went to the store and was humiliated when the money I was told I could spend was not in our account and I had to put a few groceries back.  I remember crying and saying I didn’t know if I was going to survive this.  I went home and knelt down beside my bed and cried out to God and said, “I’m scared, Lord. What is going to happen to us?” The “what ifs” were invading my mind. I heard the Lord gently say to me, I am going to meet all your needs.” I responded, “Lord, with all due respect, I need a direct word from you. Please send someone to me to speak for you.  I want to make sure that what I am hearing is from you and not what I want to hear.” That was eleven o’clock at night, and the next morning at seven o’clock, one of my best friends called me and said, “Kathy, I have been praying for you and Rick this morning, and God wanted me to tell you something.  He is going to meet all your needs.”

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus Philippians 4:19. NASB

Just to know that God heard me and my prayers in this marvelous relationship I have with Him, meant everything to me.  I was going through the wilderness and He was right there with me. He was saying to me, fear not, I am with you and I will help you. It was evidence of a loving father, loving his daughter and gently comforting her. He did provide for our every need, even my son’s allergy medication. He was faithful.

YOU SHALL SEEK THOSE WHO CONTEND WITH YOU AND YOU SHALL NOT FIND THEM AND THEY SHALL BE AS NOTHING AT ALL

I can’t say that I have mastered my emotions, but I have learned that I must stay calm in a crisis.  I don’t have the luxury of giving in to my emotions.  Your emotions will lie to you! My husband was recently diagnosed with a debilitating medical condition.  I admit I panicked at first, and when I did, the “what ifs” started bombarding me.  I immediately reached out to my friends who know how to pray.  I received peace in the middle of my storm.  I am not worried about him anymore because I know we will see a miracle of healing, and God is right there with us.  My husband gets better every day.  I know healing is living inside him because of what our Lord has already done for him.  God has already healed him.  My husband may not appear to be healed, but we are walking it out.  I don’t see fear anymore.  It doesn’t plague me as it once did. I could panic and put my hope in what the doctors say, but whose report am I going to believe?  I chose to believe the report of the Lord that says, by His stripes, my husband was healed.

The world is in such chaos today.  It is easy to listen to the news and lose hope in our future, but I know He is with us through any difficulty.  Quit listening to the naysayers.  Quit bombarding your mind with negative images and negative reports.  Get into the word of God and let it transform you.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2. NASB

I WILL RETAIN YOU WITH MY VICTORIOUS RIGHT HAND OF RIGHTNESS AND JUSTICE

When I first started my journey with the Lord many years ago, He told me I was in training.  I look back on that now, and I am still in training.  He has molded me and humbled me and I have seen many miracles take place in my life and in my family’s. There is no price that I could put on the peace that only comes from Him. It is priceless. God has given me justice for my spiritual enemy, fear. Fear is evil. Learn how to defend yourself and obtain the victory with the Word of God.

I learned how to pray and intercede. I learned how to pray the Word.  I learned how to come into His presence. I learned the power of praise and worship. I learned how to make Him first in my life.  I learned how to operate in the Spirit.  I learned how to die to self, which is daily.  I learned how to love God, and I learned how much God loves me. I learned how to trust God when it seemed hopeless.  It hasn’t been easy, but knowing what I know now, it could have been much easier if I had trusted Him more.

There is a spontaneous worship song on youtube at the Upper Room. The song is “Worthy of It All”.  In the middle of the song, there is a spontaneous moment inspired by the Holy Spirit from one of the singers. She sings,

“And when I see Your face, I wish I’d given more away.

So don’t let me waste a trial, don’t let me miss the chance to praise!”

There is so much power in praise! That’s a lesson for another day.

He loves you, no matter what.  There is nothing that you can do to make Him love you any less than He does right now.

Has he ever disciplined me, yes.  He is my Father.

For the moment, all discipline seems not to be pleasant but painful, yet to those who have been trained by it, afterward, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness. Hebrews 12:11 NASB

There is no one who loves me more.  He wants what is best for me and He wants what is best for you.  God is no respecter of persons.  He does not favor me more than anyone else. If He will do it for me, He will do it for you my friend.