Hebrews 13:6   The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.

So Yesterday I spent some time looking through journal entries that I had written while I was living in Spain.  I think it is very important to take time to look back at ways that God has been faithful in the past, and re-learn the important things He has taught.   While I was doing this, I stumbled across a cool short study I did, and I decided I would share it with you guys.

            The idea of the study was to look through the Bible and see all the times God has said “Fear not” or “Do not be afraid”.  Think about it!  It seems like He’s constantly saying that. SO the way I see it, God is powerful enough that if He says something once, we should listen, and if He repeats something, it is probably because we need the reminder.   The point of all this was for me to study other “fear not”s in the Bible, and then make my own “Fear Not” that would remind me to trust in Him. 

            As I studied all the examples that I could find, God made certain things clear to me. He usually said “Fear not” first and then continued with one of 7 things:  I have, I am, I will, or You have, You are, You will, or You must. (I encourage you to write these 7 short phrases down, leaving some space between each one.)   The great thing to me about these 7 phrases was that I found He used phrases beginning with “I” more than twice as much as He used ones that began with “You”.  Many took the form of Genesis 15:1, where God says “Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield, your very great reward”  Our fear should be put away because of who God is, and who He has proven Himself to be; it doesn’t depend on who we are, our circumstances, or anything we can do for ourselves.    Then in Isaiah 41:10 and 43:1-2, God adds an “I will” to the “I am” and “I have” statements.  Not only can we trust in who God is, and who He has been, we can trust in His promise for our future.    Now, here’s what I want you to do:  Take some time in prayer and fill out what “I am”, “I have”, and “I will” you think God would say to you right now.   Feel free to praise Him a lot for the way He glorifies Himself in all three of those ways.

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            Now here comes the even more personal part.  There are other times where the Lord (sometimes through the voices of angels) says “Fear not” and then continues with a “you” statement.  In Daniel 10:12, God continues by talking about what Daniel has done in the past.  In Isaiah 43:1, God reminds Israel of who they are.  And in Acts 27:24, God continues with a “you must” for Paul.  There are other times when God just simply takes the time to give his children a glimpse of what they will be (Luke 1:30).  God loves you.  What would God say to you about who you are, what you have done, what you must do, and what does He say you will become?

I really encourage you guys to spend some time answering what God is teaching you right now in each of these 7 categories; I know it really helped me search some stuff out with God.

I love you guys!

I’m praying that this will bless you all as it did me!