And who can take away all of life's fears? Like
our Heavenly Father. The fourth verse of the
34th Psalm is this. I sought the Lord, and He
heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Somebody said, Catherine Kuhlman, that's just
exactly what I wanted you to talk about one of
these days in our little heart -to -heart talks.
That's it. Fears. Fears. I sought the Lord, and
He heard me, the psalmist said, and delivered
me from all my fears. And there's only one who
can deliver you from all of your fears, and that
one is the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you want to
know something? Fears are the most disruptive
thing that we can have. And all of life bears
this out. I knew a lady who is in a mortal, absolutely
immortal dread of germs. Oh, she has a phobia
when it comes to germs. She stays inside of her
house. The prisoner of her own fear. She should
meet someone. She wouldn't shake the hand of
a friend or a neighbor or anyone unless she has
gloves on. She's so afraid of germs. She doesn't
realize that the fear itself is ten times more
deadly than the germ. I mean that. Besides, if
she had a confident attitude toward life, germs
would probably not get a foothold in her life.
Her very confidence and faith would act as an
antiseptic. It's that simple. Have you ever seen
people who were so afraid of sickness that they
were sick all the time? Have you seen folk who
were so afraid of catching cold? Oh, my goodness,
you know. I've seen in a restaurant. So afraid
of catching cold that there's quite a scene with
the waiter before they're seated because they
are afraid they might sit in a draft or they
might catch cold. And they do. They're never
disappointed. They're usually the folk who have
a cold all the time because they are afraid of
getting it, and so they do, you know. It's like
that. And a woman with her germs, her fears become
a culture ground for the germs that she fears.
The thing which I greatly feared has come upon
me, Job said. And that was not chance, but cause
and effect. A teacher had a basic fear that brought
on a stomach ulcer. And when she got rid of the
fear, she got rid of her ulcers. It's true. What
I am saying is the most practical thing that
I could bring to you today. When you talk about
ulcers, every time somebody says, I have a terrific
case of ulcers. Just stop and say, well, now,
what is that thing that is really gnawing at
your mind? Well, what is it? What is it you're
afraid of? When you get rid of that thing, you'll
get rid of your ulcers. I'm tense. I'm worried.
All the troubles in the world, you say. And I'll
promise you, stomach ulcers before too long.
That man will never be well until he relaxes
and surrenders all those strained worries to
God. You'll find that most people's ulcers, especially
businessmen, go up and down with the stock market.
Investigation has shown that When the Dow Jones
averages on the stock market skidded down, most
businessmen have upset stomachs. Their ulcers
are at their worst. And then when Dow Jones goes
up, well, I'll tell you something, their ulcers
are not quite so bad. And even more than that,
they're in bitter humor. There's not that strain
there. Worry and fear is the greatest enemy that
you can bring into your life. Men of old saw
the connection between worry and disease. The
Word of God says, banish all worries from your
mind and keep your body free from pain. I know
a woman who had a fear of having cancer. How
often she's told me. Every time there was the
slightest pain in that body. She was dead sure
it was the beginning of cancer. Her mother had
cancer. Died of cancer. And she kept saying to
me, I'm just the image of my mother. I'm so like
her that I'm going to get a cancer just as she
did. And as a result of this... constant brooding,
this constant fear, she was afflicted with constipation.
There was this difference between her and her
mother. The mother had ten children. She had
none. And the doctor told her she would never
get rid of that constipation until she gets rid
of her useless fears. Her useless fears had tied
her up, not merely physically, but mentally and
spiritually as well. She was a tied -up personality.
And I'll promise you, she'll never die of cancer.
She'll die of something else. As a result of
her fears and her worries. Fear over something
that she'll never have. A useless fear. A useless
worry. A young minister began to complain of
tightness of the chest and developed a hacking
cough. The doctors found no real physical reason.
Then he began to complain of severe pain in the
lower bowels, saying, I think I have cancer there.
Examinations by several doctors found nothing
physically wrong, absolutely nothing. But he
was so possessed by this fear that he actually
resigned his ministry. He was no good to himself
or anyone else. And he just sits around moping
and complaining all the time. It's fear that's
upsetting him. The fear itself is the disease.
Fear. is sand in the machinery of life. I want
you to know something. Fear is costly. Fear is
the most costly thing that you can bring into
your life and into your body and into your mind.
I give any in the world in these next few minutes,
I could do something to rebuke that fear in that
mind of yours. It's costly. It's the most costly
thing that you can take into your life. If you
just sit down a very few minutes, analyze yourself.
Just look yourself directly in the face. It's
so hard for people to be honest with themselves.
All of your troubles really stem from fear. Fear
of what? Nine times out of ten, fear of something
that never will happen to you. Just like that.
Now, we have to realize something. We have to
distinguish between normal fear and abnormal
fear. There's a certain kind of fear that is
healthful. If you did not have that kind of fear,
you might walk out across a busy street or across
a freeway, heedless of the traffic, and be killed.
Now, that fear is a good fear when it comes to
driving. an automobile. I've seen people who'll
get behind a steering wheel and boast of the
fact that they have no fear whatsoever. They
drive like it and sooner or later will either
kill themselves or someone else. Now when you
get behind a steering wheel You need to know
the danger. You need to recognize the responsibility
that you have. You need to have good, normal,
healthy fear and drive carefully lest you have
an accident or bring disaster to someone else.
Normal fear. gives you that caution that you
must have to survive on Earth at all. We need
good, normal, healthy fear to survive. Abnormal
fear, on the other hand, is a dim and a shadowy
area peopled by imaginations, obsessions, ghosts,
confusion, apprehensions. of our inheritance
from the early days of the human race when men
were superstitious and afraid. You know, we have
an awful lot of superstition among us. Superstition
is a ghastly thing. I am shocked at sensible
people who are literally controlled by superstition.
And if you're being controlled by superstition,
you'll be controlled by fear. Abnormal. And you're
being ruled over by imaginations, by obsessions,
apprehensions. We're only 5 ,000 years old in
civilization, maybe not even that much. And yet
the primitive fears of... ancient men are still
ruling our unconscious minds. Fear of what? Let
me just ask you that. Let me say something else.
In addition, we've had fears projected upon us
as children by... who would not knowingly have
heard us for the world, but who had their fears.
And we were so close to them in our childhood
that we picked up those fears. And though the
time that they were imparted to us has gone by
a long time ago, they still continue in our lives
because they made such a deep impression. Life
is difficult. I wouldn't sit here and tell you
that life is easy. Life is difficult. It's full
of pain. It's full of sorrow. It's full of suffering.
And finally, the ordeal of death. And so we become
afraid of the future, afraid of the economic
conditions, afraid of ill health, afraid of other
people, afraid of old age. We're also afraid
of ourselves. We're afraid of tomorrow. Fear,
fear, fear. And we must deal with these fears.
If today you have a mind full of fears, then
you do not have a mind that's full of God. It
is a fact, isn't it, that we are going to be
what our minds contain. If you have a mind that's
full of hate, you're going to live in a world
of hate. Let's just be practical about this thing.
If you have a mind that is full of lust, you're
going to live in a world of lust. It cannot be
otherwise. If you have a mind that's full of
love, you're going to live in a world of love.
You become what you think. And if you have a
mind full of fear, then you live in a world of
fear. And I am amazed at the thousands and thousands
of people who this very hour are living in a
world of fear. Fear because their mind is full
of fear. There are two supremely powerful forces
in the world. Just two. They're not related to
atomic energy. There are greater forces than
that. Of these two forces, one is fear. And it
has literally killed its tens of millions. The
other great force is faith. And whenever fear
and faith come to grips, faith will win because
faith is the more powerful. Nothing is more powerful
than God. And faith is God. If you have been
entertaining fear thoughts for years, do you
know what you've done to yourself? Fear thoughts,
over a long period of years, form a channel through
the mind until fear becomes your primary thought.
It governs you. It governs your mind. It governs
your body. It'll govern your day. It cuts a great
channel and every thought that you think is drained
into this basic thought. channel appear. And
it soon becomes the governing factor of you.
You. Now, it's one thing to talk about these
things. But another thing to give the answer,
how do you correct this condition? you correct
it by beginning to practice the very presence
of God. How can you be afraid when you know that
God is with you? God is your Heavenly Father.
You do not have to be afraid of today. You begin
this day with God. If God is with you, You have
nothing to fear. He's never lost a battle. Never.
Do you realize that God has never known defeat?
And you begin the day by saying, God is with
me. No matter what I have to face today, I go
forth unafraid. He is with me. In the midnight
hour when you awaken and you think about tomorrow
and you lie there in bed, Cold perspiration just
breaking out over your entire body. I know I've
done it too. There's a reason I can describe
it so well. But then you say, God will be with
me. I cannot fail. Whatever the problem, whatever
the temptation, I sought the Lord, and He heard
me and delivered me from... All my fears. Dear
old lady said to me, I am so afraid I'm going
to die in the poorhouse. And I said, well, that's
all right, honey. God will be with you there,
too. You know, afraid of old age? Oh, no, honey.
Not if you know the Lord. to the Lord. And He
heard me and delivered me from all my fears.
He'll give you that deliverance if you want it.