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A dear friend sent me a picture of his son, holding up a huge catfish he caught fishing. However, my wow turned to whoa when I learned he caught it by ‘noodling’. That’s the technique of using your bare hands or feet as bait by blindly reaching into underwater holes and wood piles. With the size and bite of the fish fearful enough, fear of the unknown is even greater! Not knowing if the bite would be of the razor-sharp teeth of a beaver or poisonous snake, I intend to use the old-fashioned technique from childhood called “fishing poles!”

In Isaiah 12:2, the old Prophet gives us the blueprint for a victorious life saying, “Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.” Notice how this wise counsel worked for David, and it will work for all of God's children.

As a child, David had no fear of the lion or bear while watching over his father’s sheep. Neither did he fear the giant Goliath because his faith and trust were in the LORD. 1Samuel 17:45 teaches us that “Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.” For David, there were no unknowns to fear because of his Knowledge of the LORD!

Then, as a man, for a season, David forsook that faith of the known for the fear of the unknown.  In Psalm 56:3, David acknowledges his fear, saying, “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. However, he then remembers how he was trained up as a child. We see him knowing in Whom to call, as he says in v.9: When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me. Now, we see NO FEAR, only FAITH in David’s life in v.11, as he says, “In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.”

A childlike faith is what God requires and what we should desire. Why? Because a child’s faith does not know fear! 1 John 4:4 promises us, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” 

Child of God, we never have to “fear the unknown” because of our “Faith in the Known!” 2 Timothy 1:12 says, “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”

 

From My Heart,

Bro. John