followHIM - "How can I overcome fear?" : follow HIM Favorites

Episode Date: June 14, 2022

Hank Smith and John Bytheway answer a question from this week's Come, Follow Me study.Show Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.co/old-testament/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Steve & Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producers/SponsorsDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: MarketingLisa Spice: Client Relations, Show Notes/TranscriptsJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Rough Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Transcripts/Language Team/French TranscriptsAriel Cuadra: Spanish TranscriptsIgor Willians: Portuguese Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Follow Him Favorites. My name is Hank Smith. I'm here with the incredible and amazing and wonderful John, by the way. Hi, John. Hey, how are you? We are answering a question from each of this year's Come Follow Me lessons. The lesson this week is in the beginning of 1 Samuel, chapters 8 through 18, roughly. John, the question we're going to take on today is one that I get from my own children and from my students, and that is, how do I overcome fear? Fear can be paralyzing, where I'm scared of making a wrong decision.

I'm scared of something bad happening. I'm scared, so I just don't do anything. How do you help young people overcome fear? How did you yourself overcome fear? I just ran and hide and got under a blanket. Okay. And I survived until this day. There is such great advice in, oh, Hank, is it section 38? If you are prepared, you shall not fear. Just to practice, to go through it. I mean, like giving talks or something. When I was maybe seven or eight or nine or something, the astronauts were landing on the moon in those days. And I remember reading something about all

of the things that Neil Armstrong said when he was on the moon. One small step for man, giant leap for mankind, but something else he said up there that I didn't know, but it's in a talk I heard somebody give. He said, just like drill. Really? They had practiced it so many times before that he was so prepared that this is going just like drill. I'd already prepared for it in my mind.

And so I think that's great advice. If it's the type of thing you can prepare for, then prepare for it. There's nothing wrong with getting up and practicing, giving your talk to the piano. Give your talk to the fridge before you have to do it. Practice asking that girl out on a date. Yeah.

Try to prep for the test. There's a sense of calmness that comes on, hey, I worked hard. I prepared for this. I think I can do this. Sometimes we just forget we're among friends in certain situations. You're going to give a talk at church. Hey, you're among friends. All of us have been there before. But like you said, you're going to ask your girl out on a date. Hey, I'll tell you, I practiced as a teenager. What am I going to say? I'm going to say, hey, if you're not busy on Thursday, I was going to, you know, I think scripturally, that is such a great advice. Just be prepared. And you know what? I still feared a little bit,

but it was a lot easier because I was somewhat prepared. You know, David does some things here in his battle with Goliath that I think can help us answer this question. One, David only goes with what he knows. He goes with his strengths. He goes with those five smooth stones and his sling. He doesn't want to go in with the armor he hasn't practiced with. A weapon he's never used before. Yeah. Right. So this is the idea of preparation. He understands how this works. So part of David's confidence in overcoming his fear is probably the hours and hours of practicing with the sling out in the shepherd's field.

I pictured this isn't the first time David has ever used a sling. And I don't know what that looks like with hours of scripture study or hours of prayer or whatever it is that already I have behind me. I can move forward with my confidence in the skill set that I have. Second, he announces to the world and especially to his enemy that I come in the name of the Lord of hosts. I remember Elder Holland saying, beware any battle in which you're fighting on the wrong side. The opposite of that is go forward in any battle in which you're fighting on the wrong side. The opposite of that is go forward in any battle in which you're fighting on the right side. You know you're on the right side here, so move forward. And then what does David do when he sees Goliath? He ran toward the army to meet

the Philistine. He didn't hang back and wait and think, okay, he moves forward. So three things I think we can do from this story to overcome our fear, John, is think, okay, he moves forward. So three things I think we can do from this story to overcome our fear, John, is practice, practice, practice. Prepare, prepare, prepare. And whatever fear it is, even if it's just fear of life, well, learn all you can. Read, study, learn, be competent. Second is trust the Lord and be on the right side, be on the Lord's side of the line. And then third, go forward, run forward. Isn't it amazing that he ran towards Goliath? I love too that just there's something to be said about the fact he picked five stones out of the brook.

I call it plan A, plan B, plan C, plan D. There was a backup plan. Why did he take five? He was such a good shot, but he still took D. There was a backup plan. Why did he take five? He was such a good shot, but he still took five. He's over-prepared. Yeah. This is for a contingency if something else should happen. There are Goliaths out there, but I like that I come in the name of the Lord of hosts.

The Lord is on our side. We sing that in a hymn. Do we believe it? Fear not, for the Lord is on our side. Elder Bednar will heed not what the wicked may say. The Lord's on our side. We sing that in a hymn. Do we believe it? Fear not for the Lord is on our side. And Elder Bednar will heed not what the wicked may say. Lord's on our side. That helps a lot. We can stand up when we're in a situation where we might fear.

So I think, John, if I was scared for the future, if I was thinking, oh, what am I going to do? Instead of running, go hiding in my blanket, like you said earlier, I would do these three things. One, I would make sure I'm on the Lord's side of the line. Two, I would become as competent and prepared as I possibly can in all varieties of life. Be ready for anything. Be prepared for anything you can think of.

Prepare for it. Think of it. Don't waste your time. I've heard you say this before, John. Don't waste your time in front of the TV. Get prepared. Work on your talents. Work on your competency.

You've told me before, don't watch other people live their dreams. Some people dream of doing great things. Others wake up and do them. Yeah, it's this idea of don't just watch other people live out their dreams on TV. Go live your dreams. And then lastly, and I think we got to mark this in 1 Samuel 17, verse 48, run towards what you're afraid of.

Go at it because odds are you're going to be like David and you're going to be victorious. Yeah. I like the idea that if you're in a canoe and a big wave is coming at you, the safest thing to do is to go right at it. Head right at it. Yep. The only way through some things is through. Go right at it.

You'll probably surprise yourself. I love it. Run toward it. And like David, you're going to shock the world. I love this story because it's known for all time. David and Goliath, almost anybody can tell you what that story is about. And I think that's going to happen to our listeners as they go toward the enemy, you're going to become the thing of legend. All right, my friends, join us next week for Follow Him Favorites. Come join us on our regular podcast. You can find us wherever you get your podcasts. It's called Follow Him. This week,

we're going to be studying these chapters with Dr. Daniel Peterson. He's a lot of fun, has a great voice. You'll want to hear from him. So come join us over there. Thank you.