How To Banish Fear And Be Blessed (With Videos, and One Video with Dr. David Jeremiah)

 

[Kailua Beach, Oahu, Hawaii]

It was not intended on my part to write today primarily concerning fear, although it needs to be addressed because it is obvious we live in a dangerous world, and fear is a "natural" reaction to that, even for true believers in Jesus.   In the Bible, even strong and mighty prophets were occasionally struck with fear.  The issue is to overcome the fear as much as possible and to not be crippled emotionally or spiritually by that tool of the devil to tear us down and make us ineffectual witnesses for Christ.  Of course, we all realize that some things call for necessary fear, when we are in danger and our survival instincts "kick in." For example, when you are home alone and someone is trying to break into your house; or you are hiking in the woods and come face to face with a wild bear.  That kind of fear calls for immediate action and is needed to save yourself... with the good Lord's help. That is obvious to everyone.  

The point is, for the most part, it is better to put our trust in the good Lord, and to wait on Him to act in our behalf; indeed, to wait on Him to bring us to our real home, heaven, and to carry out His magnificent plan for His coming kingdom.  We must be patient !   It will not be long before Jesus takes us home.  (John 14:1-4)

"Wait on the LORD: Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: Wait, I say, on the LORD."  -  Psalm 27:14

We need to exercise caution in these chaotic times. The Bible prophesied that these last days would be characterized by "perilous times" (2 Timothy 3:1-5).   But the most important thing to do is to look to the good Lord for protection and guidance.  We do that by strong faith and much prayer and much reading of God's Holy Word, the Bible -  God's Love Letter to us and His Instruction Manual for us.

Following is an excellent 8 minute clip by Dr. David Jeremiah on fear.  He focuses primarily on the fear of a soon financial collapse, but bases his comments on Psalm 37.  Please watch !

Just a note: some Bible Prophecy experts believe that the soon Rapture of the Church (Christ's Bride - who are true believers in the Redemptive work of Jesus at Calvary; who believe Jesus is the Savior by His shed blood for us as He took our place on the cross and paid our sin debt in full) - some scholars believe that perhaps the Rapture will be the event that ushers in the coming world financial collapse.

As for fear, if you are saved (born again, spiritually) by believing that Jesus is the Savior, and the only way to heaven and eternal life, just remember that God will fight for you no matter what battle is occurring in your life right now.  

"For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."  -   2 Timothy 1:7

"The LORD shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace."  -   Exodus 14:14

"Be careful  [anxious] for nothing, but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."   -   Philippians 4:6-7

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."   -  Jesus at John 16:33

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."    -      Matthew 10:28

"There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love."  -  1 John 4:18

Here is an informative article on the subject of fear:

 https://www.raptureforums.com/bible-study/a-spirit-of-fear/

Please watch the following 11 minute encouraging video on how to be still and wait on God - a much needed message to help believers to endure during these troublesome times.  Truly faith in God and the patience to endure unbearable trials will see us through until the good Lord takes us home to be with Him in heaven!

"Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge."  -  Psalm 46:10, 11

"Peace comes when there is no cloud between us and God."  -  Charles H. Brent

"God will not permit any troubles to come upon us, unless He has a specific plan by which a great blessing can come out of the difficulty."  -  Peter Marshall

"No one can pray and worry at the same time."  -  Max Lucado

"Faith attracts the positive.  Fear attracts the negative."  -  unknown

"Trials are medicines which our gracious and wise Physician prescribes because we need them."              -  John Newton

"We would worry less if we praised more."  -  unknown

"Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven."   -  Henry Ward Beecher

Here is a wonderful hymn you will enjoy that applies to our discussion here in this post.  "Be still my soul".  The first few words in the hymn are : "Be still my soul: the Lord is on thy side.  Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain.  Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change, He faithful will remain."

As for being blessed, there is no greater blessing and miracle than the gift of salvation!  What love of the heavenly Father and of Jesus that the Savior died a cruel and painful sacrificial death and by that death, paid our sin debt in full so that we might have eternal life, simply by us believing that Jesus is the Savior and the only way to heaven!

What LOVE !!  And that is another blessing, the love of God and of Jesus for us.  And remember, salvation is a GIFT !

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:  it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."  -  Ephesians 2: 8,9

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:  According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:"  -   Ephesians 1:3,4

"But He said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it."  -  Luke 11:28

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation, when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him."  -   James 1:12

"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand."  -   Revelation 1:3

Don't think of a blessing from God as being only prosperity !!  The true and lasting blessings are salvation and being saved from God's wrath. And we, when we are saved, are now a part of God's family.  

Please read also the Beatitudes (The Sermon on the Mount) by Jesus at Matthew Chapter 5:1-12 where He mentions many blessings for us!  Here is verse 3 of Matthew 5 for you to consider :

"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

It is highly urged that you read all of Matthew 5!  

And do not forget the blessing to be with Jesus for all eternity in heaven which was mentioned above concerning eternal life.  Here are the Savior's words at John 14:1-4:  

"Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in Me.  In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you.  I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there ye may be also.  And whither I go ye know; and the way ye know."         

Hallelujah !!  

Maranatha !!

We should constantly be praising and thanking and glorifying God for His love and tender mercies.  

Be often in prayer, and pray for the good Lord to show you His will for you in all matters.  Pray for Him to guide you in ways to help others.

If someone is reading this who is not saved; who has not surrendered to Jesus in faith and belief in His ransom sacrifice, following are some Scriptures for you to take seriously.  More so, for you to repent and pray for forgiveness !  Do this with all heartfelt sincerity and with a desire to always do the heavenly Father's will in the future.

"He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him."  -   John 3:36

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."  -   John 14:6

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."   -  John 3:16

"Jesus said unto her,  I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:  And whosoever liveth and believeth in Me, shall never die.  Believest thou this?"  -   John 11:25,26

"For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of:  but the sorrow of the world worketh death."    -    2 Corinthians 7:10

"And Jesus answering saith unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.  I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."   -   Luke 5:31,32

"Be Blessed" - Inspirational Weekend

"Praise ye the LORD.  Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in His commandments"  -  Psalm 112:1

To be blessed is the happy condition of those who revere the LORD and do His will. 

"Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD.  Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart."  -  Psalm 119:1-2

"Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust....."   -   Psalm 40:4 a  

So from these verses we see that to be blessed is to trust the LORD, walk in His laws and keep His commandments; and to have a reverent and healthy fear of Him and to seek Him with the whole heart.  

The ultimate blessing is to have Jesus Christ as our Savior, by Whom we may gain eternal life.   But that takes faith and belief on our part.  Salvation is believing in Jesus as the Savior, repenting of all known sin, and praying to God for forgiveness; surrendering our life and will to the good Lord.

Romans 10:9,10,13 says it best:  (9) "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  (10) For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  (13) For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

A blessing is a gift from God.   Our every breath is a gift from Him.  So is the fact that we have eyes to enjoy all the beauty of His creation, and to see the faces of our loved ones.   God is love, and He shows His love to us in many ways.  He blesses us with a roof over our heads and with food to sustain us.   But the subject of this post will dwell on the spiritual blessings from the good Lord.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:"  -   Ephesians 1:3

Treasure God's Holy Word and read it daily. The Bible is a gift from the Lord; His love letter to us and His Instruction Manual for us.  By studying the Bible you come to comprehend God's attributes and His character, and you begin to know Him more intimately, and you become full of love for Him and for Jesus.  Pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).  You need to communicate with the good Lord in order to know Him and to love Him with all of your heart.  You cannot truly know a Person unless there is communication between you and Him.  It takes much prayer to build a strong, intimate, love relationship with the Lord.  He communicates with you by His Holy Word, and through sermons and even by conversations with other believers.

As a true believer, one needs to watch his associations and not become chummy with hardened sinners.  Psalm 1:1-2 tells us:

(1) "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.  (2)  But his delight is in the law of the LORD:  and in His law doth he meditate day and night."

The Psalms are full of expressions of blessings.  And do not forget the sermon on the mount by Jesus... the Beatitudes .   Read Matthew 5:1-12.  There is described the happiness to be found by those who find their purpose and fulfillment in God.

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."  -  Matthew 5:8

"Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God."  -  Psalm 146:5

To be blessed is to be happy.  Don't forget to bless others and spread the happiness around in a generous fashion.


"Jesus answered and said unto him,  Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."    -  John 3:3


"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."  -  John 3:16

"Jesus saith unto him,  I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."   -  John 14:6


Have a blessed and Christ-centered weekend...... and life !

"How To Be Blessed" - Inspirational Weekend

I felt blessed to capture this Mandarin Duck with my camera earlier this month at the Honolulu Zoo as I had always wanted to see one and take photographs of it.  

But this is not the sort of blessing I want to concentrate on in this post today.  Instead I want to talk about spiritual blessings.  One place to find out how to be blessed is to go to the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12.  Jesus in these verses, begins His Sermon on the Mount.  In the Beatitudes He begins each one by saying, "Blessed are....."  and ends each one by showing a reward.  The Greek word for "blessed" means "happy or blissful."  It literally means "to be enlarged."  In the Beatitudes, blessed does not mean a superficial and shallow happiness but, rather, a state of spiritual well-being; a deep joy of the soul.

Let's just concentrate on only two of the Beatitudes right now.   The first one is found at Matthew 5:3 and says, 

"Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Although Jesus preached most frequently to the poor,  the above verse is not referring so much to monetary poverty as it is to spiritual poverty.  To realize you are a sinner and in need of a Savior; to realize we have no righteousness of our own.  Also to be willing to be in God's hands.  It is the opposite of pride and vanity and ambition.    And notice that the poor in spirit have as a reward the kingdom of heaven, which refers to salvation.  The kingdom of heaven is, of course, referring primarily to eternity in heaven with the Lord.  To sum it up, before we can enter heaven we need to recognize our inability to save ourselves by good works (Ephesians 2:8-9) and to recognize our own worthlessness and that only faith in Jesus can save us.

Let us now look at Matthew 5:8 which says, 

"Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

The Pharisees of Jesus' day were not pure in heart. Oh, they had an outward purity, but deep inside their hearts were full of corruption and wickedness and hypocrisy.  A big part of the Jewish religion was the strict  outward washings and cleansings , and this they believed would enable them to one day see God and to enjoy eternal glory.  But the Lord is here saying that what is needed is a purification of the heart from all things wicked in order to enter into the kingdom of God.  A person must be delivered from all sin by the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ in order to have Scriptural hope of ever being with God.   

And the reward for having a pure heart is that you will see God.  Granted, in a sense we (particularly unbelievers) will all see God as a Judge and not as a Friend.  (Revelation 1:7).  But in Matthew 5:8 to see God is spoken of as a special favor.   To see the face of someone, or to be in the presence of anyone, especially a king or a prince, was regarded by the Jews as a high favor and honor.  To the Hebrew, those that saw the face of a king were his favorites and his friends.   Therefore, in this verse, to see God means to be His friends and favorites, and to be with Him forever in His kingdom.

Since many Christians and others do not often read the Bible book of Revelation,  they may not be familiar with this verse below:

"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand."   -  Revelation 1:3

This is the only time in the Bible where it says you will be blessed by reading one of its books, meaning Revelation.   But not only just reading Revelation, but by keeping those things written therein.  

"We should keep in mind those things which relate to the future and obey those things which are required as truth and duty.  The blessing results from the fact that  the truth is properly regarded and exerts a strong and desirable influence over our lives."

The book of Revelation consists of prophecies of future events.  It tells us about the antichrist, the New World Order, the one world religion to come during the tribulation period, the one world government, and the one world economy.   All of which are in the beginning stages at the present time.  How close then is the 7 year tribulation !   And, therefore, closer still the Rapture of the Church which occurs prior to the tribulation.   The book of Revelation speaks of the new heavens and the new earth and of the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth.   It covers all the plagues and woes to happen to the wicked who are left behind after the Rapture to face God's wrath and judgments. 

So the book of Revelation can bless you by making you aware of these judgments to come and to enable you to turn to Jesus in faith as your Savior.  It gives you hope to realize that soon this wicked and chaotic world mess will be gone forever, and that Jesus will reign in a paradise on earth and true believers have something to look forward to for all eternity. 

Notice that the end of Revelation 1:3 says that the time is at hand.  If that was true in the apostle John's day, how much nearer are these soon to occur events in our day and age !   We are living in the end times; the last days. 

Time is short.

Turn to Jesus as your Savior before it is too late !

Jesus loves you. 

He is waiting for you to come to Him in complete trust and faith.

Read the book of Revelation and you will comprehend just how terrible the 7 year tribulation will be with all of its woes and catastrophes and plagues.  You do not want to experience the great wrath of the Lord at that time. 

Yes, the reading of Revelation can save your soul and enlighten you to the point of accepting Jesus Christ as the Savior and surrendering your will and your life to Him. 

So to be blessed, you need to be saved and then live as godly a life as possible.  Read the Bible everyday and pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17) in order to get to know the Lord better, and to have a close, intimate, and personal love relationship with Him. 

It is all about Jesus !!

Be blessed !!


Have a Christ centered weekend !


"(For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I seccoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)"   -  2 Corinthians 6:2

"Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book."   -  Revelation 22:7

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."  -  Revelation 21:4