Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. I'm Bill Crowder, and I titled today's

reading, Reason for Fear. When I was a boy, the school yard was where bullies threw their

weight around, and kids like me received that bullying with minimal protest.

As we cowered in fear before our tormentors, there were something even worse.

Their taunts of, are you scared? You're afraid of me, aren't you?

There's no one here to protect you.

In fact, most of those times I really was frightened and with good cause.

Having been punched in the past, I knew I didn't want to experience that again.

So what could I do?

And whom could I trust when I was stricken with fear?

When you're eight years old and being bullied by a kid who is older, bigger, and stronger,

the fear is legitimate.

When the psalmist faced attack, he responded with confidence rather than fear,

because he knew he didn't face those threats alone.

He wrote in Psalm 118,

The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me?

As a boy, I'm not sure I would have been able to understand his level of confidence.

As an adult, however, I've learned from years of walking with Christ

than he's greater than any fear-inducing threat. The threats we face in life are real, yet we need

not fear. The creator of the universe is with us, and he is more than enough.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is taken from Psalm 118,

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