Proverbs chapter 29, verse 25, the fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.

Ah, the danger of the fear of man, the trap that is set when we fear what others might say about us or do to us. We are tempted in so many

different ways by fear and specifically by the fear of man. And this is where the Bible gives us a recipe for safety. This is the roadmap to safety.

Trust in the Lord. Don't fear man. You want to live in safety, in security? Then don't live for what others think about you.

Don't live for others' approval or applause.

And don't fear what they might do to you.

Because they are in the hands of God, and your trust is in God, and nothing can happen to you outside of

his providential hand. Oh, this is such encouragement. Proverbs 2925. Whoever trusts in the Lord

is safe. So we pray, God, deliver us from the fear of man, deliver us from that today, from the fear of

what others can do to us. We can't control that. Yet, God, we are so thankful that you are in

control. You are in control, and you are good good and you promise to work all things together,

even hard things, even things that others do to us that are hurtful. You are able to work all

those things together for good. So we put all our trust in you. God, we trust in you and

we find our safety in you.

So help us to fear you alone.

Help us not to fear man.

Help us not to put our ultimate trust in others.

Help us to put our ultimate trust in you. We even think about, oh God, all these days where we pray together for boldness to share the gospel

and how we're so prone not to share the gospel because we fear man.

Because we are afraid of what someone might think about us,

we're afraid to be in an awkward situation with someone else.

To bring up Jesus and ask someone what they think about Jesus.

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