Recently, the enemy has been attacking me in numerous ways. However, when I sat back and really thought about it, each attack was rooted in a place of fear. Every doubt, every emotion, my lack of hope, and so on, all went back to a fear I had. Fear that God wasn’t doing or wasn’t going to do what he said he would. A suspicion that a situation was too good to be true. Fear that I wasn’t enough or wasn’t doing enough. Fear that my children would be or wouldn’t be. The list could go on. These fears were so crippling that they played a significant role in my loss of hope. With the help and prayers of others, God redirected my focus on him rather than my fears. I praise him for that!

To fight off the enemy with the right weapons, I decided to take a journey through scripture down a fear road. I have decided to read what the Lord has to say about fear rather than listening to an enemy known to lie. I figured I was not alone in these attacks because the enemy only has a few tricks up his sleeve, so I thought it would be great to bring others along this journey with me. It was no surprise that the starting point of this journey God Is bringing us on is Deuteronomy chapter 6, which is not our normal perception of fear. 

As you can tell from the title, Deuteronomy six teaches us to fear the Lord. This is not the same fear that we experience when we are afraid to make the wrong decision or the fear we experience when someone frightens us. This fear is reverence, deep respect for God. To fear the Lord is to recognize who the Lord is. Many of us can have the wrong idea of God and his work. Hence, we can be led to fear.

This chapter opens with Moses being determined to get the people of Isreal to obey and teach their children the commands, laws, and decrees of the Lord, and in doing so, they would enjoy a long life. What I have come to learn is that obedience to God is love to God. When we choose to be obedient, we are living out the fact that not only do we know God and his word, but it sets the pattern for our daily lives, and we trust him and his promises. In doing so, fear is no longer the driving force of our decision-making, but obedience to God is. 

Lesson 1: When faced with fear and daily life with all of your heart, soul, and strength, love God, constantly think about his commandments, teach his commandments to your children, and live each day by the guidelines in his word. 

Read Deuteronomy 6.