"Do not be afraid" or its equivalents appear hundreds of times in the Bible. What does the Bible say about fear? More than almost any other topic, Scripture addresses our tendency toward anxiety, terror, and uncertainty — and it always points somewhere beyond the fear. The Two Kinds of Fear in the Bible The Bible speaks of two very different kinds of fear. The first is the fear of the Lord — a reverent awe and respect for God called the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). The second is fear...

Who Was Eli? Have you ever felt like you were given a sacred responsibility, but you struggled to manage your own household? That was Eli, a priest and judge of Israel whose story is both cautionary and redemptive. Eli served at the tabernacle in Shiloh during a dark time when "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). He was the mentor of the prophet Samuel, and his life reveals how even the most devoted servants can fail in their most important relationships. Eli was a...

Few topics appear more consistently throughout Scripture than love. From the first chapters of Genesis to the final pages of Revelation, the Bible speaks of love — God's love for humanity, the love humans are called to show one another, and the nature of love itself. The Foundation: God Is Love "God is love," writes the apostle John in 1 John 4:8. This isn't just saying that God is loving — it's saying that love is the defining essence of who God is. "We love because he first loved us" (1...