And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. – 1 Samuel 23:16 (NIV)

In yesterday’s Bible verse, we learned that David was being chased by Saul. Saul wanted to kill David and because of that, David had every right to be afraid. However, Saul’s son Jonathan helped David. Jonathan helped David focus and find strength in God.

Like David, when you’re facing a scary situation, who you listen to matters. David didn’t listen to fear, which was probably speaking loudly in his ear. David could have done that. He could have listened to the reports that told him Saul was coming to kill him. He could have listened to the voice of fear and let that cause fear to grow in his life.

Fear Speaks Loud

The truth is, when we’re faced with fear, fear speaks loudly! It seems so loud, so big, it’s hard to imagine or think about anything else.

That’s why when you’re afraid, it’s good to do what David did. When faced with a big and scary situation, David realized that what he listened to was important. Instead of feeding his fear, he listened to what his friend Jonathan said. Jonathan reminded him to find strength in God.

David defeated fear in his life by listening to God and reminding himself of what God had told him. God had told David that he would be the next king. David listened to a word from God instead of his fear.

You can do the same. Yes, you might be facing something big and scary like David. However, you can choose what you listen to. Fear might be speaking loud in your life, but you can choose to listen to faith. You can listen to what God says about your situation rather than what your fear says. When you do that, you will conquer fear every time!

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Here’s a recap of this week’s devotions on fear

Day 1 – Fear Feels Big
Have you noticed that fear always feels bigger than what you think you can handle? In this powerful devotion, you’ll learn that even though fear feels big, you’re not facing it alone. See how God can team up with you to defeat fear in your life!

Day 2 – Fear Speaks Loud
When you’re facing fear, it speaks so loud. It’s hard to see anything else or imagine ever being free from the fears that hold you back. Learn in this devotion how to drown out fear and see God move on your behalf.

Day 3 – Fear Stops At The Word

When God speaks, it has to come to pass. That means the things that God has promised you will happen! This devotion shows you how to stop fear with the Word of God!

Day 4 – Faith Holds You Steady In Fear

Fear will try to rock your world if you let it. Choose instead to cling to faith to combat fear. Learn how faith can be the anchor to hold you steady when fear tries to capsize your life!

If you’d like to keep reading great devotions to help you in your battle with fear, check out last week’s devotions on fear.

Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? – Luke 12:25 (NIV)

One weekend, I was convinced that I had lost my library books. I thought of how much trouble I’d be in for losing them. All weekend was spent looking for my lost library books.

On Monday, I went to school. When I got there and checked on the books, I learned that I had already returned them to the library. I must have returned them earlier in the week and forgot all about them.

That weekend, I realized something powerful. I found out that worry is pointless. I had lost an entire weekend to worrying about something that didn’t even happen. It’s so easy to get into the habit of worrying about things.

When we worry, we show that we don’t fully trust God to take care of us. We think that it’s up to us to do everything instead of relying on God.

Today’s Challenge: Put Your Trust In God

The sad thing about worry is that it hurts us. It causes us to not enjoy life and instead be fearful and upset. So if worry has been something that has held you back in the past, choose today to develop new habits.

Choose to put your trust in God. Look to Him to take care of you. Don’t spend your energy trying to do everything in your strength. Instead, lean on God. Let Him take care of you and rest in His peace.

If you enjoyed this week’s challenges on fear, here’s a quick recap video.

• Challenge 1 – Practice Faith in the Midst of Fear
  So today, choose to practice faith in God. Choose to believe that God can and will take care of you. Determine not to let fear rule your life. Even when fear shouts loud, choose to listen to faith.
• Challenge 2 – To defeat fear, keep your focus on God.
  When our focus becomes anything other than God, we can become fearful.
• Challenge 3 – Fix your focus on God.
  If fear has been an issue in your life, determine to focus on God. Fixing your focus on God will bring you freedom from fear.
• Challenge 4 – Put Your Trust In God
  Choose to put your trust in God. Look to Him to take care of you. Don’t spend your energy trying to do everything in your strength. Instead, lean on God.
• Challenge 5 – Remember Jesus is With You
  We’ve got Jesus with us and in us all the time. Yet too often we forget all about Him. We go through the storms of life afraid simply because we didn’t realize that Jesus was right there with us.

https://n6v.61c.myftpupload.com/product/tips-for-conquering-fear-pdf/

The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? – Psalm 118:6 (NIV)

Have you ever felt left out? I remember a time when I was the only friend that wasn’t invited to a birthday party. Situations like that can make you feel really bad. Even when people let you down, you can be encouraged that God is always on your side.

Today’s Challenge: Fix your focus on God.

God isn’t going to leave you out or forget you. Unlike friends that can be fickle, God is always on your side. That means that no matter what happens you win!

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God plus you is greater than anything you face.

So if fear has been an issue in your life, determine to focus on God. Fixing your focus on God will bring you freedom from fear.

If you enjoyed this week’s challenges on fear, here’s a quick recap video.

• Challenge 1 – Practice Faith in the Midst of Fear
  So today, choose to practice faith in God. Choose to believe that God can and will take care of you. Determine not to let fear rule your life. Even when fear shouts loud, choose to listen to faith.
• Challenge 2 – To defeat fear, keep your focus on God.
  When our focus becomes anything other than God, we can become fearful.
• Challenge 3 – Fix your focus on God.
  If fear has been an issue in your life, determine to focus on God. Fixing your focus on God will bring you freedom from fear.
• Challenge 4 – Put Your Trust In God
  Choose to put your trust in God. Look to Him to take care of you. Don’t spend your energy trying to do everything in your strength. Instead, lean on God.

If you’d like a resource to help you in your battle with fear, check out our teen devotion: 5 Devotions to Defeat Fear.

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. – 2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT)

We all face fear at times in our lives. No one is immune to it. However, it’s important to realize that fear isn’t from God.

God gives us power, love, self-discipline. He gives good things to us, not bad things like fear.

So when you’re struggling with fear, realize that it’s not from God. Fear often comes when we get our eyes off God and onto our circumstances or feelings. When we forget to focus on God, we can often become afraid of the things going on around us.

Today’s Challenge: To defeat fear, keep your focus on God.

So if you’ve noticed that you’ve been fearful lately, take inventory of what you’ve been focused on. Perhaps you’ve become consumed with something that has shifted your focus off God. When you do that, it allows fear into your life.

When our focus becomes anything other than God, we can become fearful.

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If you enjoyed this week’s challenges on fear, here’s a quick recap video.

• Challenge 1 – Practice Faith in the Midst of Fear
  So today, choose to practice faith in God. Choose to believe that God can and will take care of you. Determine not to let fear rule your life. Even when fear shouts loud, choose to listen to faith.
• Challenge 2 – To defeat fear, keep your focus on God.
  When our focus becomes anything other than God, we can become fearful.
• Challenge 3 – Fix your focus on God.
  If fear has been an issue in your life, determine to focus on God. Fixing your focus on God will bring you freedom from fear.
• Challenge 4 – Put Your Trust In God
  Choose to put your trust in God. Look to Him to take care of you. Don’t spend your energy trying to do everything in your strength. Instead, lean on God.

https://n6v.61c.myftpupload.com/product/5-devotions-to-defeat-fear-e-book/

For I hear the slander of many; Fear is on every side; While they take counsel together against me, They scheme to take away my life. – Psalm 31:13 (NKJV)

Today’s Bible verse feels like the truth. There are so many things to be afraid of right now. Maybe you fear a shooting at your school or fear speaking in front of your history class.

Fear comes in many different forms and it often feels overwhelming. So how do you deal with fear when it’s all around you, often yelling louder than everything else?

Overcoming fear starts with faith. You’ve got to have faith that God will take care of you. When you realize that God is there to help you, provide for you, and protect you, you realize that you have nothing to fear. That’s not to say that faith is easy. It isn’t.

Fear is easy. Faith is hard.

But even when you’re surrounded by things that are scary, you can choose to put your faith in God. When you put your trust in God, you can have peace even when you have every reason to fear.

So today, choose to practice faith in God. Choose to believe that God can and will take care of you. Determine not to let fear rule your life. Even when fear shouts loud, choose to listen to faith.

Find Bible verses about your fear and speak them over your life. As you build your faith, your fear has to go!

Today’s Challenge: Practice Faith in the Midst of Fear

If you enjoyed this week’s challenges on fear, here’s a quick recap video.

• Challenge 1 – Practice Faith in the Midst of Fear
  So today, choose to practice faith in God. Choose to believe that God can and will take care of you. Determine not to let fear rule your life. Even when fear shouts loud, choose to listen to faith.
• Challenge 2 – To defeat fear, keep your focus on God.
  When our focus becomes anything other than God, we can become fearful.
• Challenge 3 – Fix your focus on God.
  If fear has been an issue in your life, determine to focus on God. Fixing your focus on God will bring you freedom from fear.
• Challenge 4 – Put Your Trust In God
  Choose to put your trust in God. Look to Him to take care of you. Don’t spend your energy trying to do everything in your strength. Instead, lean on God.
• Challenge 5 – Remember Jesus is With You
  We’ve got Jesus with us and in us all the time. Yet too often we forget all about Him. We go through the storms of life afraid simply because we didn’t realize that Jesus was right there with us.

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. – Psalm 139:14 (NLT)

Have you ever let how other people treat you cause you to question your value? If so, you’re not alone. We all let the words and actions of others affect how we feel about ourselves.

If we don’t get asked to the dance by our crush we feel worthless. If the girls in math class laugh about your outfit we feel ashamed. Often, we let the words and actions of others have more weight in our lives than how God feels about us.

Today’s Truth: I Am God’s Best

To God, you are His best. God doesn’t make any creation that is inferior. There is nothing wrong with who you are.

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God loves you, He knows everything about you and still thinks you are His best!

Don’t give in to the lie that you don’t matter or that something is wrong with you. Nothing could be farther from the truth. You’re important, you are loved and you matter!

God has a great plan for your life and you truly are His best!

To the praise of the glory of his grace, in which he has made us accepted in the beloved. – Ephesians 1:6 (KJ 2000 Bible)

At my school, during holidays they would have candy for purchase. If you purchased candy, you could have it sent along with a note to anyone in any other class.

When the day came to have the candy passed out, I would always be hoping that someone would have remembered to send me one. I didn’t want to feel embarrassed or be the only person who didn’t receive candy from others.

At school and in life, it can be easy to want to search for acceptance. It might not be getting the most candy that bothers you, but if we’re all honest, we search for acceptance.

Today’s Truth: I Am Accepted

Regardless of whether our friends, family, or classmates accept us, the truth is that God accepts us. He loves us and accepts us just as we are.

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On those days where we feel unloved and like no one really gets us, it’s powerful to remember that in Jesus, we are accepted. Through Jesus, we find the acceptance we all crave.

So today, if you feel that you aren’t accepted by others, don’t believe that lie. Jesus died so that you could be accepted by God. His acceptance is what matters. God loves you, accepts you, and thinks you’re great. Don’t believe the lie that you’re not accepted. God’s truth is that in Him, you’re accepted!

Have you ever had moments in your life where you felt hopeless? Maybe you felt a little lost and unsure of what to do or where to go next.

We all have those times in our life, but that’s where purpose comes in. Purpose is powerful. It gives you a sense of energy. Having a strong sense of purpose for your life helps you get up each day with energy and hope.

Today’s Takeaway: Purpose is Powerful

You might have days when you question your purpose. What are you here for? What is life all about. And those questions are good to examine sometimes. But don’t stop at those questions. Instead, discover purpose by getting to know God.

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As you get to know God better and spend time in the Bible, your desires begin to line up with His. Time reading the Bible and praying is never wasted. The more time you spend with God, the more He begins to reveal your purpose.

So today, spend some time asking God about your purpose. Discover the hope that comes from knowing your purpose in Christ!

 If you enjoyed today’s devotion and want to follow along with a PDF version, you can download our 10-day purpose planner. It’s full of devotions to help you discover your God-given purpose.

Check out these devotions to help you discover purpose

1. Day 6 – Fulfilling Your Purpose Takes Grit
   In life, there are going to be circumstances and situations that come against you that will cause you to doubt your purpose. To accomplish the plans God has for your life will require you to stand firm in your purpose.
2. Day 7 – Purpose is Best Grown In Community
   If you want to grow and discover your purpose, one of the best ways to do it is to find a good church community.
3. Day 8 – Purpose Can Be Cultivated
   If you want to be good at something, you’ve got to cultivate it. The same is true with your purpose. If you’re going to really be good at something or achieve something you’ve got to cultivate it.
4. Day 9 – Purpose is Powerful
   As you get to know God better and spend time in the Bible, your desires begin to line up with His. Time reading the Bible and praying is never wasted. The more time you spend with God, the more He begins to reveal your purpose.
5. Day 10 – Discovering Purpose is a Process
   Discovering purpose is a process and it’s not going to happen in two weeks. In your journey to discover your purpose, be patient and let God help lead and guide you.