This summer I was speaking at a conference on fear and as I was preparing for the teaching it occurred to me that fear is often what crowds out space for God. When fear is present, unbelief and doubt, his traveling companions, join him in occupying space in our lives that otherwise would belong to God.

I prayed up a storm, as I believed God's Word to me: "If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." (John 15 : 7) Once I had laid my petitions on Him, I no longer had to carry the yokes of fear, despair, and stress.