Lesson 5 – Through our obedience to Him
Read Psalm 23 - www.bible.com/bible/59/psa.23.esv

Another important way to conquer fear is to be obedient to God’s leading and direction in our life. A great example of this is found in 1 Samuel 12:20-21. This is Samuel’s farewell speech to the nation of Israel. The people had asked for a king to rule over them like other nations had, and Samuel had warned them this would result in hardships for the people since they were rejecting God’s leadership over them (1 Samuel 8). They hadn’t listened to Samuel, so Saul had been appointed as king. But he would not follow God’s commands, so the nation was constantly harassed by enemies, and finally God would reject Saul as the one to continue to lead Israel (1 Samuel 15). Samuel knew this would happen, just as God told him it would. But in these two verses in Chapter 12, Samuel tells them that yes, they have sinned against God, but this should not lead them to fear – it should lead them to follow God more closely than ever before.

The nation of Israel did not see God’s plan regarding another king for forty years. God asked them to follow Him for all this time without seeing what He had planned. For all this time they were told by God not to fear even though they could not know, when Samuel said this to the people, that God’s next king hadn’t even been born yet.

Sometimes God asks us to follow Him without telling us how He will resolve what is causing us to fear. We must not be discouraged by this, we must not lose heart. He tells us in Isaiah 46:10 that He knows the end from the beginning, and that all His purposes will be accomplished. It is the way we learn to trust Him, to grow our faith in Him strong. We obey Him long before we see what His plan is.


There will be times when what we’ve worked to accomplish in our life will not be completed by us. This is also where obedience to God’s plan is a way to conquer our fear. King David saw this in his life when he wanted to build a temple for God in Jerusalem. He’d drawn up all the plans when God told him it would not be he but his son who would build this temple (1 Chronicles 17). When David finally was able to give his plans for that temple to his son, Solomon, it was perhaps nearly 20 years later. All this time of preparation and collecting of materials David had done, and now he had to give it to his son to complete – read David’s words to Solomon in 1 Chronicles 22:12-19. David had obeyed God, and now Solomon did not need to fear either; God would lead him too.

Verse to memorize:
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Psalm 23:5 (ESV)