Fearful To Fearless

Fear not!

This wonderful inspirational book contains nearly 400 scriptures relating to fear and anxiety (and fearing and reverencing God), and each Bible verse is followed by a short, related encouragement. The first verse listed in the book is the one I've always turned to when I've felt anxious or afraid: "For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." 2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV). It's so helpful to remember that terror and craziness are not a part of God's plan for us. There's one kind of godly fear--having awe and respect for the Lord, and then there's realistic fear that people experience when they're actually threatened, but the crippling, "what if?" fears that strangle our hearts and minds do not have to be a part of our lives.

Kusner mentions that unfounded fears often prevent us from doing anything outside our comfortable routine. We don't exert ourselves to do great works for God because we're afraid of failure, and the book shows Moses as an example of this attitude: when he encountered the Lord in the burning bush, he could only emphasize how ill-suited he was for delivering God's people. Moses was concerned that he couldn't succeed, and he asked God to pick someone else. But though the Lord sent Aaron along with Moses as a spokesman, Moses was still the right man for the job and God promised he would be with him. If we belong to the Lord, He's with us, too, and if we feel alone and abandoned, it's a false emotion. I support the way the author speaks of fear as actually being sent from the devil. It's not just another emotion we experience, one which happens to be negative; fear that isn't a response to an actual threat or danger is one of the tools Satan uses to harm God's people. It's not okay even in small doses, and it's not something we just have to live with either, because "perfect love drives out fear" 1 John 4:18 (NIV). Jesus Christ's love is a perfect love and it can deliver us from our fear.

Note on the translations used: 13 different Bible translations are quoted at various points, so there's a broad variety of language styles. I personally prefer KJV and NKJV, and I appreciated the quotes from those versions the most, since they're what I've grown up with and what I understand to be the most accurate, but I also like quotes from the Amplified Bible, because it pretty much explores all possible nuances of meaning. I believe that The Living Bible and The Message Bible are more like modern paraphrases of scripture, but they can serve to make certain verses clearer to contemporary readers. At any rate, it seems like a great deal of effort has been put forth to present the word of God in whichever way a reader is best able to receive it.

Plenty of time and thought has gone into the organization of "Fearful to Fearless." Except for the preface and the brief introductions to the "Fear Not," "Don't Worry," and "Fear God" sections, every page contains a scripture, and this book could serve as a great daily calender, where people could read a fresh page every morning and be strengthened in their resolve before they start their day. Also, a helpful index in the back lists every verse mentioned in the book, so a reader could have a good starting point for searching the Bible and launching their own study of the verses related to fear and fearlessness.

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Biblical Truths that Inspire Trust, Remove Fear, and Provide Comfort

Jeff Kusner has complied a remarkable collection of Christ centered, Biblically based promises that offer inspiration and a pattern for living, a life free of fear in exchange for a reverent worship our awesome God. This compilation is found in his book "Fearful to Fearless." There are selected passages from Genesis through Revelation with a complete index. The format of the book includes one of the selected scriptural passage addressing a "fear not" or other verse related to fear or comfort with a brief truth to accompany the verse that inspires, comforts, or challenges the reader to look to Jesus for calm and peace in the personal "storms of life" being faced. The book is designed so that it can be used for daily inspiration, for help in specific times of crisis, or when needing a nugget of truth or a promise for the peace and calm that Christ offers his followers in times when they need extra faith or spiritual strength. Each passage has been carefully selected. "Fearful to Fearless" is an ideal gift book, for hospital visitation, for graduation, or for any of those other occasions you want to offer encouragement and inspiration.