Fear not Abram, I’m your shield. Your reward shall be very great.
– Genesis 15:1
Is that not an incredible exhortation from God to Abram? Fear not. These are words that we will see all over the Bible, over and over again. God looking at his people saying fear not. Fear not, do not be afraid.
Genesis 15:1 teaches us to set aside fear and place our trust in God.
And the implication clearly from the number of times we see this in the Bible is that we are all prone to fear in different ways. In fact, just pause for a moment and think, what do you fear? Just think about it. What comes to your mind when it comes to fears? Think for a minute. Think deeply, what do you fear? What do you worry about? What are you anxious over? Or what do you dread? What do you fear?
And God over and over again says, “You do not need to fear anything but God.” That’s the message of the Bible. Fear God alone and you will be set free from all other fear. To fear God is to see God for who he is… To honor God as holy and trustworthy, and to worship God as the one who’s in control of your life. And if he’s in control, then you don’t have any reason to be afraid. Fear God and nothing else. “Fear not, Abram, I’m your shield.” This is God speaking to Abram. And the reality is this is God speaking to all of us. We can’t take every promise in the Old Testament and just immediately turn it to us unless we see those promises reiterated in the New Testament for every follower of Jesus, which we definitely see.
Jesus is our shield against sin and death. Jesus is our Protector, our Deliverer, our Strength. We can do all things through Jesus who gives us strength. This is why we have no reason to fear. God himself is our Shield and your Reward, God tells Abram that it will be very great and Jesus promises us the same thing. Your reward in Heaven, you have a Kingdom coming for you. This is amazing. Talk about reward. You are an heir with Jesus of a Heavenly Kingdom.
Genesis 15:1 teaches us to set aside worldly fear for the fear of God.
Oh God, please help us than today to leave behind fear. God, I pray, Genesis 15:1, over every single person listening with all kinds of different fears, I pray that they would hear you saying right now to them by your Spirit, through your Word, fear not, and they would be free from fear and worry. Lord, we pray that you would help us to fear you alone, help us to see who you are, to revere who you are, to honor who you are as holy and trustworthy and sovereign in control.
God, we are so thankful you are in control of our lives. We confess that when we are afraid, it’s because we lose sight of how sovereign, good, holy, and trustworthy you are. So forgive us, oh God, for not fearing you in a way that leads to fear for us in this world, and we pray that you would deliver us from fear in this world through the fear of you, knowing you’re our Shield, and knowing that you have promised to be our Reward and to give us reward.
Oh God, we don’t deserve any of this, we praise you, Jesus, for making this possible for us through your life and death and resurrection, we praise you for the gospel that sets us free from all fear. God, we pray you help us to spread this good news, especially in cultures around the world where animistic peoples pray on fear of gods or spirits.
God, help us to go into those places and to get the good news to those places so that they can know they can be free from fear that you’re their Shield, that Jesus you love them and have died on the cross for them, you defeated death for them.
Prayer for the Bajau People
Oh God, we pray. Help us to spread this good news to all the peoples of the world, including the Bajau people of Malaysia, 270 strong, God, who speak the Bajau language, we pray that they would be reached with the gospel, that they would be freed from all fear and they would know your reward. Oh God, may it be so, we pray all this in Jesus’ name according to Genesis 15:1. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder and Chairman of Radical, an organization that helps people follow Jesus and make him known in their neighborhood and all nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, and Don’t Hold Back.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
