“O Lord, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
many are saying of my soul,
‘There is no salvation for him in God.’ Selah
“But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
I cried aloud to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
“I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.
“Arise, O Lord!
Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
Salvation belongs to the Lord;
your blessing be on your people! Selah” (Psalms 3:1-8 ESV)
If we who are of genuine faith in Jesus Christ are following our Lord in wholehearted devotion to him in walks of faithful obedience to his commands, and no longer in sin, we are going to have enemies. And they are the same enemies that God has and that Jesus had when he walked on this earth. For they are all who are of the flesh, and who are living according to the flesh, and who are not living to please the Lord with their lives. For they are the deserters of the true faith who are following after the lies.
And so they may try to impress upon us the lies that they have made up, and/or that they have believed that others have made up, in order to try to lead us astray from the truth to follow after the lies. And if we do not embrace their lies, but we hold fast to the truth of what Jesus taught, and to what his NT apostles taught, then they may attack us with their lies and try to accuse us falsely of what we have not done. And they may push us away and cast us off because we hold to the truth of God’s word.
But we have to not let the opinions of other people determine who we become and what we believe and how we behave. The only opinion that really matters is that of God, which is not a mere opinion, but which is based in his holiness and righteousness and in his divine will and purpose for our lives from even before he laid the foundations of the earth. So we must believe the Lord and his Word (taught in context), and we must follow him and his ways, even if we face much opposition against us.
So, we put our confidence in the Lord and in the teachings of the Scriptures taught in their appropriate context, and we do not surrender to the opinions of other human beings who do not know and who do not accept the sovereignty of God over their lives and his divine will and purpose for their lives. And we believe the Lord, and we believe his Word, and we respond to him and to his teachings in submission to his will and purpose for our lives, knowing full well that we will be rejected by some or many people.
But we are not to fear other humans and their opinions of us and of what we believe and practice. We are to fear God and to show him proper honor and respect and reverence and obedience to him and to his commands. And we are to seek his wisdom and counsel and guidance in directing us in the way that he has for us to go. And then we are to follow him in the ways in which he has for us to walk and to live and to serve him with our lives. And then we will live at peace and we will not be afraid of what others do to us.
[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-19; John 15:1-21; John 16:33; John 17:14; Acts 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Eph 6:10-20; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]
Do Not Fear
An Original Work / June 2, 2013
Based off John 14
Do not let your hearts fear.
Trust in God. Trust in Christ.
“In My house you will find
Many rooms I have
Prepared for you,
And I will come back
And take you to heav’n.”
“I will take you to be with Me;
You’ll be where I am.”
“I am the way and
The truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father,
Except he comes through Me,
So put your faith in Me,
And do all of what I command.”
“Whoever has My commands
And obeys them loves Me.”
“I did not leave you as orphans.
I sent you the Counselor;
The Holy Spirit to live in you.
He teaches you all things,
And He reminds you of Me.”
“My peace I give to you,
So do not fear, trust in Me.”
