Let’s face it, the culture that we live in says that we should never show fear. To show fear is weakness and the one thing we can never appear as to others is weak. King David was a man, a very successful man we might argue. God had blessed him with many victories and made him King of Israel. God also allowed him to be chased into hiding, for fear of his life, both by Saul and later by his own son.

I would say that David had his own unique perspective on fear, but then so do each of us. We all have our own unique situations, our own sets of challenges.

David sought the Lord’s help with his fear:

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalms 139:23-24 NIV

I’m sure that we’ve all heard this famous prayer of David, this prayer can be called a “Dangerous prayer”. Asking God to search us is asking Him to reach deep into us and pull out into the light anything that is covered by darkness.

What do you think might be deep within yourself that the Lord may pull out and work on with you? I tell you one thing! It won’t be your choice, it will be Gods!

“test me and know my anxious thoughts“

Know my anxious thoughts? From your thoughts, God will pull out your fears. Why? Because our fears show those areas where we aren’t fully trusting God. Where we aren’t fully surrendered to Him, and to His will.

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.

2 Timothy 1:7 NIV

So, Fear isn’t of God, Amen? Fear is Satan’s tool to keep us from God, everything that we fear will be used by the evil one to ensure that we never fully rest in the Lord’s peace. How many times does the Bible tell us to “Fear not”? According to one source, there are 365 “Fear not’s”, one for every day of the year.

What can we do? We can pray David’s prayer from the end of Psalm 139 with sincerity and with our whole heart and be open to the Lord’s work in us.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV

Every time our fears surface, we need to take that thought captive and think of David’s prayer and ask the Lord to “try me and know my thoughts”.

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

One of our weaknesses is our fears, let’s lift them up to God so that He can make his strength perfect in this weakness of ours.

Let’s also not be afraid to lift our fears up amongst our brothers and sisters in Christ. When we share our challenges with one another, we allow others to speak into our lives, but we also allow others to see that their fears and weaknesses are not unique to them alone. One of the biggest lies that Satan likes to tell you is that you are alone in your fears and weaknesses. He loves to shame us, hoping that by doing so we will keep these things to ourselves, just like the world wants us to do, so that we never experience the peace and hope that comes through sharing our trials with others. And so that others don’t experience the peace and hope that comes from other believers being open and vulnerable in front of them.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV

So, why am I talking about temptation, isn’t this supposed to be about fear?

When Hazael set his face to go against Jerusalem, King Joash, instead of turning to God with this new fear, instead gave the treasures of God’s temple to Hazael to appease him. When we use our fleshly wisdoms to address our fears, are we not doing the same? We are each Gods temple, He lives in us, when we turn away instead of to Him we are giving away those same treasures by declaring that they are not useful to us.

Adapted from a sermon preached in April 2022.