“You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.”
– Deuteronomy 3:22
I love this verse. This verse is worthy of memorization. Hide it in your heart. Oh, you shall not fear them, for it the Lord your God who fights for you. You shall not fear them, for it the Lord your God who fights for you. You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you. We’ve talked about this at different points, how we are so tempted to fear, tempted to anxiety in all kinds of different ways. You shall not fear them, for it is the Lord your God who fights for you.
Our God Fights Fear
How do you fight fear? By trusting in the God who fights for you. If God is for us, who can be against us?
How do you fight fear? By trusting in the God who fights for you. Let me say that again. How do you fight fear? By trusting in the God who fights for you in a Romans 8 kind of way. If God is for us, who can be against us? If God is for you, you have nothing to fear. We have nothing to fear in this world. We have nothing to fear in front of us in our future. Ultimately, we fear God. And as a result of fearing Him, we fear nothing else. We don’t even fear death.
You know why? Because our God has taken death, and He’s turned it into gain through the gospel. Through the power of Jesus, we don’t even have to fear death, because it opens the door to eternal life. You shall not fear them for it the Lord your God who fights for you.
Deuteronomy 3:22 Prays for God to Direct Us in All Circumstances
God, I just pray this verse over every single person listening to this right now in every way that they are tempted to be afraid, in every way they are tempted to be anxious. I’m just thinking about conversations I’ve had with people recently and anxiety and fear. God, in all those ways, in all those circumstances, please, oh God, help them to know, to believe, that You fight for them, that You are with them, that You will help them, that You will guide them, You will direct them, You will provide for them, You will grant them everything they need as they walk in this. Oh God, I pray especially today.
I look at the unreached of the day, Yemeni Arabs. Oh God, there’s so few believers among the Yemeni Arabs. I know a few, and they’re in the middle of such a horrible time in their country, just civil war and all of its effects and starvations and bombings and unrest. God, please, please. We pray for our brothers and sisters there. Please strengthen them. God, please help them. Please uphold them with Your righteous right hand. God, they have so many things to fear in the world around them.
Deuteronomy 3:22 Prays for The Unreached to Know God is Fighting for Them
God, please help them to know You are fighting for them, that You love them, that You are committed to providing for them. Please, oh God, may it be so. God, we pray You’d use them to spread the good news of Your love, Your peace, Your mercy in Yemen. We pray for more Arabs in Yemen to come to know You. God, over six million of them. Please God, please, save them. So many that almost all of them have little to no knowledge of the gospel.
Please, oh God, bring them the good news of the God who fights for them. Bring them the good news of the God who has fought sin and death in Jesus and has conquered. Please, oh God, may it be so. God, we pray for faith in our lives according to this verse, and we pray for the spread of faith in other’s lives and a spread of faith in Yemen, a spread of faith in Jesus as the One who conquered sin and death and has taken all our fears away. In His name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
