Below are some additional interactions on the article: Gripped By Fear. Read it first.
Challenge:
Spend some time reading the Scriptures and talking with God about your fear of losing your parent. Use this time to try and understand and experience the Lord’s love for you. Then after you have spent some time meditating on God’s love, take a few minutes and write a letter to one or both of your parents expressing your love for them. Give it to them to take with them on their next deployment or another appropriate time.
If you need help with where to start in the Bible, take a look at 1 John 4:7–12:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. Whoever loves is a child of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.
Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us, and his love is made perfect in us.”
Quizical:
The Bible talks about all sorts of fear. Sometimes it is used in a positive sense, like a reverent fear of God and his power; however, if you immerse yourself in the Scriptures it becomes evident that love always trumps fear. God’s desire for us to reverently fear his love is infinitely bigger than his desire for us to fear him.
Try taking this quiz to see what you know so far about the other kinds of fear in the Bible:
Scripture:
Isaiah 41:10
Jeremiah 29:11–13
Proverbs 3:5–8
Psalm 23
Philippians 4:6–7
Psalm 56:3–4
Romans 8:15
Joshua 1:9
Small Group Guide:
Large Group Guide:
Life Questions:
- Spend some time imagining how the story of Daniel played out. Think about what went on in the Lion’s Den and what happened with the King during the night. Which do you think got some sleep that night? Write down your thoughts about it all and specifically the things that were different because of God’s presence in Daniel’s life. You can make lists, a song, draw, whatever best depicts how you perceive the difference between how each man spent the night.
- Look at the Supporting Scripture section and choose one to memorize this week. Tell some people about the passage and why you chose that one. Having the word of God ready at hand is a very effective way of removing fear’s strangle hold on us and remembering that God loves you and is there for you.
Reflect:
Many artists have been inspired by the story of Daniel in the Lion’s Den. Take a look at the two pictures linked to here and then spend some time reflecting on what you think this situation would have been like in real life. Place yourself there and consider what emotions you are experiencing and what sort of things you would have spoken to God about, thought, or done during your night in the lion’s den. Pray for God to show you how to have a faith like Daniel’s when you encounter fear.
Briton Riviere
Peter Paul Rubens
