Lesson 10 – God’s character
Read Romans 8 - www.bible.com/bible/59/rom.8.esv

The ultimate way of conquering fear is for us to understand who God is. The Bible tells us many things about Him. He is:

Merciful, Gracious, Faithful – Exodus 34:6 … The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Eternal – Psalm 102:26-27: They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.

Love – 1 John 4:8 … God is love.
Fill in the words you find in these verses to describe God:
1 Corinthians 10:13 ______ (Faithful)
Psalm 25:8 ____ (Good)
Matthew 5:48 _____ (Perfect)
John 17:3 ______ (True)
Psalm 86:5 ____ (Forgiving, love, good)

All these things and so much more give us a glimpse of who God is. The whole Bible is written so we can discover, and learn, and begin to trust Him. And just when we think He is different now than how we see Him in Bible days, He tells us in Hebrews 13:8 He is the same, “Yesterday, today, and forever!”

How does this help us to conquer fear? We can believe and trust there is nothing in this whole world too great for Him to change. Romans 8:31 says with Him for us, nothing can be against us. This does not mean we walk through this earthly life without troubles and sorrows and things that would make us afraid. It simply means we need not be afraid for He has it all in His control. We need only take our eyes off the things in this world – things like illness or poverty or persecution or everything that is not going the way we want it to – and turn our eyes to Him who has saved us by His grace and love, who has forgiven our sin, who is making us new creatures to be like Him.


Our confidence in Him will never turn to arrogance here if we remember WE have done nothing to deserve His love or His forgiveness. Just as He loves us, He also loves the one next to you who is now acting out of fear or anger or hatred – He wants that person to be His too, so He can transform that one just as He is transforming you. Remember, Ephesians 6:12 tells us our battle is not against other people.

Verses to memorize this next week:
Romans 8:31-39 (ESV)
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,
39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.