Happy New Year and welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, January 1st.

Are you staring at an overwhelming obstacle at the beginning of this brand new year?

Well, you can learn much from God's instruction to Joshua.

Here's today's podcast on facing fear with courage.

Fear is a hindrance.

If you'll think about what it does, it creates anxiety in our heart,

it divides our mind, it drains our energy, and it hinders whatever we're doing in life. In fact, God does not expect his

followers to be fearful and you'll recall in the 10th chapter of Matthew when he

was sending out his disciples on one of their journeys, he said

to them three times in that passage as he was giving them some instruction.

He said, Fear not, Fear not, fear not, fear not, and in name the different things they were not to fear. And you

and I know that all through the life of Jesus he was challenging us to believe him and

not be afraid. And yet we are. And there's some specific reasons probably that we can name, that we could

say would be natural and normal, things that would cause fear. And when you think about

the society in which we are living in today,

think about all the financial crises that we face. People have lost their homes and their

car and their future and their salaries everything and you think about the kind of

fear that comes when you think in terms of terrorist when they blow up your

city you could just go write down the list of things that would naturally create

fear.

And so the question is, how are we to respond?

Well, as followers of Jesus, we have a very specific clear way we are to respond.

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