September 4th - Acts 18:9-10

0:00Welcome to Be Still and Know, I'm Jonathan Edwards. This is our opportunity to hear what God is saying to us today. Acts chapter 18 verses 9 and 10. One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision. Do not be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you and no one is going to attack and harm you because I have many people in this city. Throughout the Bible we hear God telling people not to be afraid, and God made a covenant with Abraham the father of the nation of Israel. He spoke to him in a vision and told him not to be afraid. Later we meet Joshua after the death of Moses, and God told him not to be afraid or discouraged for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. And then much later we hear the angel telling a young girl called Mary not to be afraid, when she is told that she will give birth to the Son of God. The command not to be afraid

1:03reminds us of how damaging fear can be. God knows that we cannot be effective in serving him unless we overcome the problem of fear. Fear takes many forms and it can creep up on us. Maybe a fear of what other people think of us or a fear of failure, loss, ill health or death. Just because you are normally a confident person doesn't mean that you are impervious to fear. We need to look to God and hand over our fears to him, reminding ourselves that he is with us, and will never leave us. So tell me this honestly, what are you most fearful of at the moment, and what are you doing without fear? And now let's pray together. Loving Father, thank you for understanding us so well and giving us the strength to face up to our fears.

2:13Amen. I'm so glad you've joined me today and I encourage you to join me every day for be still and know here on Premiere, or you might like to join the thousands of people who listen to this on podcast, which is of course available at any time. I hope you have a great day to go bless you.