Let Faith, Not Fear, Rule Your Heart

[Let Faith, Not Fear, Rule Your Heart]( Current Teaching Series [50 Days of Faith]( [Listen to Today's Broadcast]( [Let Faith, Not Fear, Rule Your Heart]( By Rick Warren — 09/11/2023 [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Pinterest]( [Email](mailto:?subject=I'd%20like%20to%20share%20a%20Daily%20Devotional%20from%20Pastor%20Rick%20with%20you&body= “Many of the people scolded him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’” Mark 10:48 (GNT) If you’re going to make a fresh start with faith in your life, you need to face your fears. Don’t let them control you! Fear has an incredible ability to paralyze our potential—to keep us from launching out and having faith in our lives. When we choose fear over faith, it makes us skeptical—we’re afraid of trying anything new. It makes us selfish—we’re afraid to commit to God and to others. It makes us short-sighted—we focus on the past and not on the future. A man named Bartimaeus faced a fear that is familiar to many of us: the fear of rejection. He was blind and wanted to be healed. He knew that to shout out to Jesus over the crowd wasn’t the right thing to do. He knew that people would look down on him for it, but he was desperate. And he knew that Jesus Christ was the only one who could help him. So he got Jesus’ attention. The Bible says, “Many of the people scolded him and told him to be quiet. But he shouted even more loudly, ‘Son of David, have mercy on me!’” (Mark 10:48 GNT). And look what happened: When he shouted out to Jesus, everyone around him told him, “Don’t do that. Be quiet. Don’t make a scene. Surely Jesus Christ isn’t interested in you. He has more important things to do.” The devil whispers things like that to a lot of us. When an opportunity for faith comes into our hearts, thoughts like, “God surely wouldn’t be interested in me” or “Don’t make a scene” or “What would people think of me?” keep us from having faith. When you see an opportunity to change, there are all kinds of shouts from inside and around you that tell you not to rock the boat. But God is asking you to do something greater than you’ve ever done before: He’s asking you to depend on him completely. Don’t you think that’s going to feel a little bit scary? Of course it is. When God asks something of you, you have a choice. Are you going to fall back on your fear and stay the way you are? Or are you going to tame your fear and step forward in faith? [PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>]( Talk It Over - Whose disapproval do you fear the most? - Why do you think sometimes it seems easier to choose fear over faith? - Proverbs 29:25 says, “The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in GOD protects you from that” (MSG). Ask God to help you trust in him to protect you from what other people think. The post [Let Faith, Not Fear, Rule Your Heart]( appeared first on [Pastor Rick's Daily Hope](. 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[LEARN MORE]( [Series Summary]( Message 1: Expecting the Best Message 2: Stretching My Imagination Message 3: Taking the Initiative Message 4: Persisting in Faith Message 5: God's Way of Meeting My Needs Message 6: Following God's Directions Message 7: How to Keep on Believing [PLAY TODAY'S BROADCAST]( Pastor Rick Warren [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [Linkedin]( Enjoy today's devotional? Listen to Pastor Rick’s daily audio teaching at [PastorRick.com]( Did someone forward this devotional to you? [Subscribe to Pastor Rick Warren's Daily Devotional.]( Rick Warren is the founding pastor of [Saddleback Church]( one of America’s largest and most influential churches. Pastor Rick is the author of the New York Times bestseller [The Purpose Driven Life](. His book [The Purpose Driven Church]( was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th century. 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