Article by Dr. Les Hollon, Pastor, Trinity Baptist Church

Living requires courage.  Courage for you to be the person whom God is creating you to be and do that which God is calling you to do.

Along the way of courage, fear always shows up. God speaks directly to our fears.  David wrote in Psalm 23:4, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for the Lord is with me; thy rod and thy staff they do comfort me.”

In the shadow lands - not able to see clearly, overcast by death - temptation lurks to give way to evil. But David, reassured by God, said fear would not control him. 

Putting one foot in front of the other is the key to getting through the valley of the shadow.  Trusting God with each moment of every day during this valley walk of 2009 means that the Shepherd, not evil, will see us through.  Fear paralyzes us in the grip of the shadow.  Faith frees us to walk with enough light to see & feel God’s rod & staff.

Left to ourselves, there is a lot to fear.  We live in a world where there is no perfect safety net that catches us from everything.  Our society is characterized as the information age, in which the knowledge base that we have now may only be 3 percent of what we will have in 2020.  The average American changes his/her address every seven years, and with most people changing jobs seven times before retirement, there are future challenges people may fear.

But we may have a confidence, in the midst of momentary fear, that as we follow the Shepherd our fear turns into faith, and our faith into faithfulness.

Pastor Les

“Man is the individualized expression or reflection of God imaged forth and made manifest in bodily form.  How is it, then, I hear it asked, that man has the limitations that he has, that he is subject to fears and forebodings, that he is liable to sin and error, that he is the victim of disease and suffering?  There is but one reason.  He is not living, except in rare cases here and there, in the conscious realization of his own true Being, and hence of his own true Self.”
-Ralph Waldo Trine, The Greatest Thing Ever Known  

“The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”
-Bible, Psalm 27: 1

This article was written by Les Hollon, Pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.  For more information about how God works in your life, or to contact Dr. Hollon, click over to Trinity Baptist Church.

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