Numbers 13-14
This is one of the most famous stories in the Old Testament. I won’t regurgitate the story here – go read it.

Fear. Here it is again. What is the deal with all of the fear? Forget that question. It’s unanswerable. Fear is ubiquitous (ever-present). Fear will be here and won’t go away until eternity. The most repeated command in Scripture: Do not fear. How is that possible? I don’t think he is telling us to never experience fear – that’s impossible. If my child runs out into traffic, I am going to fear and that fear is going to create a thrust of adrenaline inside of me to grab my child before catastrophe strikes. I believe the Lord is telling us to not be ruled by fear. Most of our fears hang with us for extended periods of time. Although sometimes we have an “instant” fear (like a child running out into the road), but most of our fears exist with us. Do not fear. Don’t let your fears keep you from doing what you’re supposed to.

The Israelites were afraid. They saw the “giants” of the land and they were afraid. I don’t buy for one second that Caleb and Joshua weren’t afraid when they first evaluated the land. Remember, courage isn’t the absence of fear, it’s deciding something else is more important than fear.

We fear when we are in the presence of something more powerful than ourselves.

We have courage when we trust in the God who is more powerful than the objects of our fear.

Caleb and Joshua trusted. The rest did not. They once again distrusted the character of God by thinking that they were going to die in war. They would rather experience the horror of slavery than the horror of their fears. Fear is faith in what you don’t want to happen. God was blown away. How could we possibly believe, in light of all He has done, that He doesn’t have the absolute best for us in mind? How can we possibly believe, in light of all He has done, that He won’t fight the wars for us?

Fast forward to their first battle: Jericho. What did they have to do? Walk, play instruments, and scream. Wow. Those poor people. We have tons of faith in things that we don’t want to happen, and almost no faith in the God who is in control of what happens.

Fear makes us run away, it makes us rush into compulsive actions, or it makes us sprint into the shadow of his wings. The Israelites ran from the promised land, and then after God judged them, they compulsively decided to go into battle when they realized what the judgment was. Caleb and Joshua ran into the shadow of his wings.

We must war before we rest, but our war is not on the outside, it’s on the battlefields of our hearts.

If you woke up tomorrow and discovered you were living a life sold out to God, what would be different about you? If you struggle inwardly right now with living that life, what are you afraid of? What will you lose if you live that life? What are you afraid of giving up? Have courage. Your fears won’t go away, but you must decide something else is more important than your fears.