For I, the Lord, your God, hold your right hand. It is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”
– Isaiah 41:13
Is that not an incredible verse? God speaks to his people, saying, “I, the Lord, your God, Yahweh, I hold your right hand.” God, the Creator of the world, the sovereign, omnipotent, all-powerful Ruler of the universe holds the hand of his people, of those who trust in him. Just picture God holding your right hand. “And I say to you,” God says in Isaiah 41:13, “fear not.”
Isaiah 41:13 reminds God is the one who can take away our fears.
Just pause and think about anything you’re afraid of. When it comes to fear, what comes to your mind? What are you afraid of? And God holding your right hand says, “Don’t be afraid. Fear not. Don’t fear anything because I am the one who helps you.” What language for someone to say I’m your helper. Picture someone whose role in your life is to help you, and God is saying that to you today. Oh, just hear the Word of God to you, for all of you who have trusted in Jesus, who are in a relationship with the Lord God, he holds your right hand and says to you today, with your hand in his, “Fear not, I will help you.”
Oh God, we praise you as our helper. We praise you as the one who takes away all our fears. God, we praise you as the one who holds our hand. We praise you as the Lord our God. We praise you according to Isaiah 41:13.
Isaiah 41:13 reminds us that God is our Helper in every way that we need.
God, I just pray over every single person listening to this right now who knows you, who’s in a relationship with you through Jesus, that they would have a keen, fresh, very real overwhelming sense right now that you are holding their hand. And I pray that you would remove fear from them, and I pray that you would help them in every way they need.
Oh, Jesus, we praise you for making this kind of relationship with God our Father possible. All glory be to your name, for your death on the cross, your resurrection from the grave, and all the benefits we experience, all the fruit of your life, your death, and your resurrection that we experience in our lives, including all the help we need for whatever we’re facing today. And God, we pray for people who don’t know you in this way. We pray that you help us to lead others to you today.
Prayer for the Fulbe People
And God, we pray for the Fulbe people of Guinea and Sierra Leone and Senegal, five and a half million of them, no known followers of Jesus among them.
God, we pray. We want the Fulbe to know you as the one who holds their right hand and takes away all fear, including the fear of death itself, that you would help them. God, please help them to come to faith in you, and cause the gospel to spread to them. We pray for believers in Guinea and Sierra Leone and Senegal, that you would give them grace and strength and boldness to spread the gospel to the Fulbe people, that you would call out others to go, and help us as your church to spread the gospel, the good news of your grace and your love as we see in Isaiah 41:13 to the Fulbe people, to all the peoples of the world, that they might know the Lord God who holds the right hand of those who trust in him forever.
We praise you, oh God, as our helper. In Jesus’ name, 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.
