If you feel helpless, you've become eligible for the assistance of God. You need only cry out for His salvation. He will do the rest in His time, and He'll do it well.

That's why God is the answer to all our fears. If God is good and loving (and He is), and if God is all-powerful (and He is), and if God has a purpose and a plan that include His children (and He does), and if we are His children (as I hope you are), then there is no reason to fear anything, for God is in control of everything.

The most dramatic events lie ahead of us. Israel today is an island of less than nine million immigrants surrounded by a sea of three hundred million enemies, many of them eager to wipe the tiny nation off the map.

So we identify the fear, then we confess it. As we bring our fear before God and own up to it, we do one other thing. We repent. That means to disavow the sin completely, to turn and walk the other way. Then we can look toward the steps that lead us to victory over our fears.

Claim God's Promises of Protection.

When I ask, "What are you afraid of?" I'm asking, "What is it that immobilizes you? What is stealing your joy and destroying your hope? What is robbing you of sleep, night after night? What keeps you from living by faith and being a risk taker? What keeps you from giving your life wholly to a loving God who wants nothing but the best for you?

Set a clear focus in your life, and fear will be crowded out. The more you fix your eyes on God's purpose for you, the more you will overcome your fear.

Fear in the midst of the storm is instinctive and beneficial. Fear of a storm that could happen is not. It's an intrusive emotion that can lead us to a greatly diminished life.

Biblical heroes were regular people who had to learn the same things you and I have to learn—to drive out fear by increasing their knowledge of God, to shift their focus from their present fear to the eternal God, to replace what they didn't know about the future with what they did know about Him.

Out of the suffering of God's people have come some of the greatest triumphs. When circumstances look darkest, God has the opportunity to shine the brightest.

Is it not reasonable, then, to trust Him with your world? When you feel overwhelmed with your problems and daily pressures, remember that God can handle those, too. You can leave them in His mighty and gracious hands.

God's promises are like the stars; the darker the night the brighter they shine.