Dealing with Your Fears

You have to learn to fight your own battles if you want to become a mature believer. You can’t always depend on someone else for your deliverance. Perhaps you have a prayer warrior friend you can call and say, “I’ve got a battle before me. Will you pray for me? I know you have power with God!”

Now that is scriptural, but it is not God’s complete will for you. God wants you to become a warrior. He wants you to be able to stand up against the devil.

When Israel was being oppressed by their enemies, God promised Gideon, “Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man” (Judges 6:16, NKJV). God told him, “I have sent you; I will be with you.”

When the people of the city came looking for the one who tore down their idols (see Judges 6:28–32). Where was Gideon? He was hiding, still unsure of God’s promises, still wondering if God was with him. Gideon said, “O my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us about…?” (Judges 6:13).

So it is with many of us! Jesus has promised us, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). Despite that, we have not learned to stand on his Word and fight!

Things will begin to change the moment you are fully persuaded that God is with you. He speaks to you, and he will show you all you need to know. You are stronger than you think! Like Gideon, you may wonder, “How can I fight? I’m so weak, so inexperienced.”

God told Gideon, “Go in this might of yours” (Judges 6:14). “What might?” you ask. Gideon’s might was bound up in God’s word to him: “Surely I will be with you.” Beloved, that same word — “I am with you” — is your strength! You will receive strength by believing this word is true and acting on it!