From The Crucible (by Pastor Linda Pugsley)

Fear is one of Satan’s favorite weapons. You lose your job—fear fills you about finances. A loved one is diagnosed with cancer—fear fills you about death and dying. You just graduated from college—fear fills you because you still don’t know what path to take. Over and over and in many ways, fear plays out in our lives repeatedly, even in the face of God Himself saying to “fear not!”

It’s probably because we live in this post-Adam, cursed mess down here in which Satan is out to rob, kill and destroy. So what can we do? I think of the old saying of “whistling through the graveyard.” I guess it was sort of a way to calm your fears while going through a scary place.

Well, people, this is a scary place, but God tells us what to do. When you feel that fear coming on, God says to remember to trust in Him…shout it out if you have to, for crying out loud. That would be your “whistling through the graveyard” method! Resist the devil; call down and be bathed in the presence of the Lord. When fear knocks on your door, don’t stand there and wet your pants! You’re a child of the King; forgiven and clean in His sight. Stand up and fight that old spirit of fear. Don’t fight, resist and then stop, for heaven’s sake--fight until it runs away.

Remember James 4:7, “…resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Isaiah 12:2 fills out the rest of your course of action against fear, “…I will trust (God) and not be afraid.” C’mon, you can do it. As the team cheer went, “Push ‘em back, push ‘em back, w-a-a-a-a-y back!” Endure the fire…it’s producing pure gold!

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