Don’t Let Fear Keep You From God’s Plan

If God has asked us to step out boldly on his behalf, we must stay obedient to the command. Otherwise, you will find yourself acting out of your own will and in that dreaded word: fear.

Obedience is a heart attitude. It is a posture of humility that expresses honor to the one obeyed. Disobedience is also a posture—it is a posture of rebellion that defies and dishonors the one who gave the instruction or command.

Self-doubt and second-guessing make you vulnerable to becoming deceived, getting pulled off course, or falling prey to the ploys of unscrupulous people. Insecurity in your ability to discern the word of the Lord may cause you to esteem another voice above the confirmed word of the Lord to you—and that can have disastrous results.

First Kings 13 speaks of a young prophet who clearly discerned the word of the Lord. Signs followed his prophetic decree, and when the king offered him a gift if he would stay and eat with him—thus asking the prophet to do something contrary to the specific word the Lord had given him—the young prophet refused and left in obedience to God (vv. 1–9). But when a deceitful older prophet lied and claimed to hear a word from the Lord contrary to what the young prophet had received from God, the young prophet believed the lie, which brought deadly consequences.

Read the complete account in 1 Kings 13:1–32 and ask God to reveal any insecurity or lack of confidence within you. Insecurity is rooted in fear, and fear cannot be tolerated in any form. In all its expressions, fear paves a path for unbelief, which always results in disobedience.

You cultivate confidence in what God told you by establishing your heart on God’s Word until your intimacy with his voice is the dominant influence in your life.

Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Obedience is better than sacrifice, a listening ear than the fat of rams.

—1 Samuel 15:22

For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.

—Romans 5:19