09172026 PART 1: When Faith Stands, Fear Loses Its Grip

Section 1

Sometimes God uses a present struggle to remind us of an earlier season when He already proved Himself faithful. While praying, Dr. Dave recognized similarities between his current circumstances and the difficult period when he and Noelle first moved to Texas. They arrived without secure employment, faced uncertainty about housing, and experienced repeated sickness during their first six months. Eventually, they stopped trying to determine how everything should work and released the situation into God’s hands. That surrender preceded the call from Ray Bentley encouraging Dr. Dave to return to radio, ultimately opening the door to ministry at KAAM. The lesson was returning again: God sometimes permits wilderness experiences, not because He has abandoned His children, but because He is shaping, teaching, redirecting, and deepening their dependence upon Him.

Section 2

Standing firm becomes essential when circumstances contradict what believers hoped or expected to see. Isaiah 7:9 warns that if we do not stand firm in faith, we will not stand at all, while Proverbs 3 instructs us to trust God rather than our own understanding. Dr. Dave connects those truths with Paul facing what appeared to be a sentence of death and Job declaring that even if God slayed him, he would continue trusting Him. Faith does not guarantee that every pathway will be comfortable; Jesus Himself perfectly followed the Father and still encountered the wilderness and the cross. Biblical trust therefore looks beyond present circumstances toward the God who raises the dead. When believers remain steadfast instead of surrendering to what they see or feel, God promises a peace rooted in Him rather than in favorable circumstances.

Section 3

Psalm 37 brings the message into four practical movements that Dr. Dave describes as leaning, loving, lifting, and letting go. Trusting in the Lord means leaning completely upon Him rather than ourselves. Delighting in Him means loving God, His Word, His kingdom, prayer, and fellowship. Committing our way means lifting our plans, burdens, relationships, finances, ministries, and concerns into His hands. Finally, resting in the Lord means actually letting those things go instead of surrendering them in prayer and immediately taking them back through worry. God knows what He is doing even when He chooses not to explain what He is doing. His plan does not require our understanding before it can be trusted. Lean on the Lord, love the Lord, lift it to the Lord, and then let it go to the Lord.