Use the Bible’s Battle Hymn to Pray and Prepare for Victory (Psalm 20)

In this episode, Pastor Chris unpacks Psalm 20 and challenges us to stop placing our confidence in things that can’t save us—our plans, our strength, or our resources. Instead, this powerful battle psalm offers a better strategy: trust in the name of the Lord. Whether you’re facing personal hardship or spiritual warfare, Psalm 20 outlines a battle plan for life that begins with prayer, confidence in God’s power, and full reliance on His presence for victory.

Key Points:

1. Call on God When You Sense Trouble Is Coming – Psalm 20:1–5
   God invites us to seek Him first—not after everything falls apart, but when we even sense something is wrong. Prayer, repentance, and worship align our hearts before battle begins.
2. Have Confidence That God Will Act with Wisdom and Power – Psalm 20:6
   David boldly declares, “Now this I know…” God delivers His anointed. When we pray in faith, we can trust God's timing and His ability to act.
3. Trust in the Lord More Than Anything Else for Protection and Victory – Psalm 20:7–9
   Rather than relying on military might or modern resources, God's people declare, “We trust in the name of the Lord our God.” Lasting victory comes from Him alone.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:
 Chris shares the inspiring story of George Washington’s protection in battle and recalls a pastor using his vintage Impala to connect with others. These moments reveal how God's providence and even our personal interests can serve His purposes.

Notable Quotes:
 “Our success is rooted in surrender.”
 “Call on God not just when trouble hits—but when you sense it's coming.”
 “Some trust in chariots and horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord.”

Actionable Takeaways:

• What are you relying on for security—God, or something else?
• Begin each week with prayer rooted in Scripture like Psalm 20.
• Replace worry with worship. Trust God more than your resources.
• Encourage and pray for your spiritual leaders this week.

Scripture References:

• Psalm 20 – Main text
• Proverbs 18:10 – The name of the Lord is a strong tower
• Psalm 121:1–2 – Where does my help come from?
• Matthew 6:33 – Seek first His kingdom
• James 4:3 – Motives matter in prayer
• Psalm 37:4 – God gives us His desires when we delight in Him
• 1 Samuel 15:22 – Obedience is better than sacrifice
• Luke 4:18 – Jesus’ mission to bring good news

Keywords:
 Psalm 20, misplaced trust, prayer, confidence, God’s protection, spiritual leadership, worship, faith, battle, chariots and horses

Challenge:
 Trade your misplaced confidence for deep trust in the name of the Lord. This week, choose to pray first, trust boldly, and live like the victory belongs to God.

The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:00

If you have a Bible or a phone Bible or whatever, I'm going to be in Psalm chapter 20. Psalm chapter 20. Not a very large chapter at all, but it is, we're going through a series on the Psalms. And it is a great psalm to look at when you have pressing troubles, when you don't know what's coming next, when you fear that you're going to lose your job or something's going to happen or bad weather is approaching. But it's a psalm like this that you look at and you pray when trouble is coming. For here, for David at this point, it was literally a psalm they would bring up before they would go to war. So if you remember in Psalms, there's different types of psalms. There's all sorts of different categories of Psalms, actually. But there's the lament psalms where they're crying out to God in grief or distress. And there's the thanksgiving Psalms where they're giving praise and thanksgiving for God's deliverance or God's provision. There's the wisdom psalms, which teach the way of righteousness. Sometimes it's Proverbs and Psalms look a bit alike sometimes with that wisdom. There's the praise psalms glorifying God for his character and power. And then here are the royal psalms. This is one in chapter 20 and chapter 21. They lift up the king. They not to glorify him, but to point to God who rules through him, to pray for his success, to pray that God would guide their king rightly to help them to experience victory, because they knew that victory ultimately came from the Lord. So it wasn't in the might or the wisdom or the knowledge or the power of the king or his resources and his weapons, as much as it was the power of God to help them find victory in success. And if you read through the Old Testament, if you read through the book of Joshua, if you read through those books, you'll see repeatedly the battles that they won were victories that were caused by the Lord. Many different things in Scripture show that God had chosen the least likely to exceed to succeed to be victorious. And it is a good thing to pray for the king. It is a good thing to pray in your time of need. It is a good thing to pray first. If you're experiencing a crisis, pray and ask God for direction. And then after you've spent your time calling out to the Lord and repenting of any sin and committing yourself to his will, then you start to formulate your plan and you start to work with the people around you. But the first thing that you do, the most important thing that you do, is that you call on God when you sense trouble coming, which is actually the first point. But let me just read, not don't put the verses on the screen, but just from Psalm 20 here. I'll just read the it's only nine verses. May the Lord answer you when you are in distress. May the name of the God of Jacob protect you. May He send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. May He rem remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. May He give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. And may we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all the requests. So this is what the people are saying. They've gathered together and they're about to head into battle, and this is what the people are saying. They're probably surrounding the King David, most likely, at this point. This is a Psalm of David, so I assume it was used for other kings too. But they've surrounded the king, and they're like, God, bless this man, use this man, protect this man, provide for this man. And this is what the king says then. Here's what he replies. Now this I know. The Lord gives victory to his anointed. He answers him from his heavenly sanctuary with victorious power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. They are brought to their knees and fall, but we rise up and stand firm. And then altogether they say, Lord, give victory to the king, answer us when we call. And then Psalm 21 is the reverse is the continuation of that. They didn't know what was going to happen when they're heading off into battle and they are praying for God's success. And then if you read Psalm 21, that is a praise of these answers that God answered, that God responded, that God blessed, that God provided, that God gave victory. Call on God when you sense trouble is coming. So that first verse, verse 1, may the Lord answer you when you are in distress. May the name of the God of Jacob protect you. Distress, when you're being pressed in all around, when trouble is coming. Often you don't wait until trouble is there, but when you see that it's coming, when you even have fears that something might be coming, when you hear whispers around the office and wonder, are they talking about me? Am I about to get laid off? Am I about to lose my job? That's a good time to start praying. Or when things around you are going bad and you're wondering what's going to happen to the economy or what's going to happen with society or all the anything that makes you scared, anything that makes you feel pressed in on, it is a good time to call out to the Lord. But may the Lord answer you when you are in distress. May the name of the God of Jacob protect you. To know that even in when you're in the midst of trouble, even when it seems like everything is falling apart around you, that God can give you peace. God can give you courage. God can give you endurance to get through it. He doesn't often fix every problem around you, but he gives you the strength to get through it. Sometimes he gives you the strength to lead other people through it. Sometimes he gives you the wisdom and the knowledge and the experience to see trouble coming and then to shout that out to other people around you and say, hey, beware, watch out, be careful, do this first. And if we're good leaders, we go out of our way to try to make sure that happens. And if we make a mistake and we don't do that, then we apologize and we try to do better next time. But we know that God can answer in distress. Psalm 8, Proverbs 18:10 says, The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs to it and is safe. To know that God cares, to know that God can provide, to know that God can protect. Verse 2, may he send you help from the sanctuary and grant you support from Zion. So back then they would see God at the altar in the presence of the Lord, the tabernacle, in the home of the Ark of the Covenant, and his dwelling place in heaven. Now we would say, now we would say, May the Lord send you help from heaven. But they were looking to in the Old Testament time where God dwelled, and they're like, May God send you help from where he's at. May God send you help and grant you support from where he is at. That is a good thing, and that's what we need too. And I always think it's amazing. And I try to go out of my way to share testimony and let people know. I hope that my message will live on beyond me, that the wonderful things that God has done in my life and some other people's lives, as far as answering prayer, because it's an amazing thing when you have a prayer need, when you can't answer it for yourself, when you've done everything that you can to try to get your solution, whatever it is, if you need housing or you need transportation or you need more finances or you need healing from sickness or whatever, you've tried everything. There's no solution that you can find. And then the God of heaven reaches down and heals you, touches you, provides for you, helps you in an amazing way. And it wasn't luck and it wasn't chance, it wasn't anything but the hand of God. And you celebrate that, you praise that, and your confidence in the Lord grows because you know that God had provided, and you start to stack up all these God experiences. And if you have a long past of God answering prayer and God experiences, it gives you confidence and future as you move forward, as you continue on into the unknowns of life. And there are many unknowns. Every day there seem to be troubles and unknowns. But we trust, we move forward and we ask God for help. Psalm 121 says, I lift my eyes toward the mountains. Where will my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. And we trust. May he remember all your sacrifices and accept your burnt offerings. So Saul had a habit or a tendency or a practice of offering, put making offerings before he'd head out into battle, and that was a good thing. And as David was coming up, he also did that. But his sacrifices and burnt offerings weren't just for sin. It wasn't just because there was trouble coming. There's a lot of us that get real tight to God when trouble is coming. And maybe when trouble comes your way, maybe you should count it as a blessing, even though I'd be happier. We'd all be happier if we were always blessed, fully provided for, very comfortable, and just enjoying God's life in creation without being touched by any trouble. But sometimes when trouble comes, God gets your attention. It'd be much better for God to get your attention before you ended this life. For instance, say you're living a great life, and all of a sudden you were diagnosed with some kind of cancer. And then you started to realize that, hey, your life might be over anytime soon. And then you start to pray and you get close to God, and maybe God heals you the cancer, but the thing you get most is you get ultimate healing from your sin. You get a new relationship with Jesus, and you went through discomfort and you went through trouble and you went through all that. But now you have a new life in Christ. And sometimes when people go through those near-death experiences, it changes them on the inside and motivates them to take the kingdom of God more seriously, to want to do, to serve God in ministry, to want to do things that really matter, to make an eternal difference. And that can be a good thing. But the people said, May he remember your sacrifice and accept your burnt offerings. And we would say, may he remember your life of worship and your personal relationship with Jesus Christ and your daily walk with the Lord, which is a good thing. We want all of our leaders to have. And that is a good thing. 1 Samuel 15, 22 says, obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams. Sometimes people just think that they can buy their way out of their trouble or buy their way into a right relationship with God. And the thing, God can use your money and your finances and your resources to build his kingdom, but what he wants more is he wants your heart, he wants your obedience, he wants your life. He wants you to run from sin and run to him. He wants you to pursue a life in Christ and to share Jesus with others. And that is a way to live that is full of blessing and just makes life more exciting. Psalm 20, verse 4. May he give you the desire of your heart and make all of your plans succeed. So I don't think that people are praying that the king becomes wealthier so he can be more comfortable in the kingdom and all the desires of his heart. The desires of your heart to make your plan succeed. It is so important for those people heading into battle to have that king have what he needs, to be at peace with God, to have the provisions that he needs, to have peace among all the commanding officers he's leading, to have unity, to have single, a Christ-like single purpose is what we need to have and what he needs to have. Psalm 37, 4, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. And here they want the king to be blessed, to have the desires of his heart, and a good king, the desire of his heart, he'll be caring for the people he's commanding. He'll be looking for the Lord's direction to do the right thing at the right time. He'll be looking for victory, and when he finds victory, to treat the people that he captures or kills or whatever, to do the right thing in the right way. He wants God's will more than anything. And that's how we should live our life to our success. Our success is rooted in surrender. Our success is rooted in putting the Lord first and wanting his will more than ours. And I find that so many times when it says to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness in Matthew 6.33, to delight yourself in the Lord and He'll give you the desires of your heart. That so many times when you're pursuing the desires of your heart, but you're delighting yourself in the Lord, the more time you're in God's Word, and the closer you get, his desires become your desires. And so the things that were that you delighted in before aren't the things that you want anymore. Like hot rods and fast motorcycles and whatever. Those are some of my heart's desires when I was younger. And now I don't need those things. So it's not, even if I had the money, I don't think I'd get them because I'd want to do something more kingdom-oriented with the resources. And then in James 4, 3, when it talks about prayer, it says you ask and don't receive because you ask with wrong motives. So what are your motives? God knows the motives of your heart. He knows why you want the things. So there's a lot of things that you might want, a lot of things you might need, a lot of things that you delight in. And they can be good things. God can use them for good. Sometimes God can use your hobby or your interest or your hot rod to connect with other people. It's like a bridge that you can use to build relationships with other people. You have a common bond. Like I knew one pastor from Wisconsin that was in the Impala club. And so basically he had this old 60-something Impala and he enjoyed it. It wasn't his life. He didn't worship it. But he went to the club meetings and stuff. And so he had this connection to tell people about his life in Christ. And they listened to him because he had an impala. And what do you have? What can you use? What can you use to succeed, to help other people find Jesus? But in this passage here, people are praying, may God give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed. And that is something that we want for all of our leaders. That is something that we want for everyone that is serving in any ministry role, is that they would be provided for and that they would just delight in the opportunities that they have and the provisions God has provided. And then verse 5 may we shout for joy over your victory and lift up our banners in the name of our God. May the Lord grant all your requests to lift up your banner. That's like lifting up a flag, like a victory flag. They had flags before they go into battle. Sometimes they had flags that identified which group they were, and then they have flags of victory. We have that too. So you'll remember during World War II, one of the most iconic photographs is of the six U.S. Marines raising an American flag atop Mount Suribachi during the Battle of Uojima in February 1945. What many don't realize is that the fighting was far from over. That moment came just five days into a brutal five-week battle. The flag didn't mean the war or even that the battle was finished. It was a banner of courage, identity, and hope. For the soldiers on the ground and the nation watching from afar, it declared, We are still standing, we still believe in the mission, and we will not give up. Just like verse five, we will shout for joy when you are in when you are victorious and lift up your banners in the name of our God. To know that your victory is in the Lord, to have a mindset that through the Lord, if it's his will, you'll be victorious. So as you move forward and you trust in God, these are things that you can think about. These are things that you can pray. You can even go through Psalms and pray them back to the Lord. So just in quick review of these five verses, to call on him in distress, to seek help from his presence, to offer sincere worship, to align your desires with his will, and to praise him in faith before the victory comes. Do you do that? Is that how you are living your life of victory? It is important that we support our leaders. It is important that we show care. So I was listening to an audio seminar and they were talking about the extreme shortage of pastors that is coming to America, that the average pastor is 60 years old, which I am not that old yet, but not far behind, and that there are not a lot of younger guys coming up in the ranks to be pastors. And that some pastors are extremely discouraged because of church stuff. And there's always, in the church, it seemed, Satan wants to do everything he can to divide and conquer. So there's always arguments and all sorts of things that pull down ministries, pull down pastors, pull down ministry leaders. And we need to do everything that we can to fight seek unity, to pray for another, to encourage each other and build each other up, and to know that we're in a spiritual battle and just be watching for it, to be aware. It's okay, well, what's happening here? Oh, wait, we should start praying. It seems like Satan's trying to get his foot in the door or his foot in the community or whatever. And so we should be careful. But we pray for each other and we build each other up, and that can be a good thing. Another thing that we have a problem with in the churches is people that want to be elders, that men that want to be trained up to be elders in the church. I keep finding more and more church besides this one. We don't have any elders, can't find any elders. Nobody wants to be an elder and nobody qualifies. Some churches are like, well, let's start with elders in training, and we'll just start them off and put a little apology thing around them that says, hey, they're in training. They might make a mistake. But people are afraid to make mistakes. People don't feel they're qualified. We need to train them up. And it would be really great if some of the people, some of the kids that just went down to children's church could be raised up to become the pastors of our church. It's pretty cool when that happens. So actually, a kid from the youth group is the pastor of the church I planted right now. But to raise them up to pray for them, to know that we have a responsibility as the church to do everything we can to pray for leaders and to raise up more leaders and to support and care for one another. Number two, have confidence that God will act with wisdom and power. Have confidence that God will act with wisdom and power. So many times we pray, God, I'm praying and I just don't think you're gonna do anything. And I get that. Sometimes it seems like God waits forever before he answers. You pray and wait and pray, and it's like, where's my answer? Where is my solution? Where is the thing that I need? And then sometimes, when you least expect it, at the last moment, God answers that prayer and God provides. So other times you want something and God doesn't want you to have it. God doesn't think you need it. God doesn't think it's going to be helpful. Sometimes we just want to run from one situation to another because it's more comfortable, because it's more convenient, because we don't like conflict. When God wants us to stick in there, to make peace, to gain endurance, to gain strength, and to get through it. That's why we have those peacemaker brochures on the shelf back there that give a list of how to make peace with one another. All right, here's the verse. I just love it. Now this I know. What a cool way to respond. So if all the people, and this probably never happened, but if all the people were around me before we went into some kind of battle or whatever, and they said all the things that they said in verses one to five, and my response was, and I had it all memorized, so I wasn't reading it, and I jumped up and I said, Now this I know. And I'm like, the Lord gives victory to his anointed, and he answers them from the heavenly sanctuary with the victorious power of his right hand. And I continued down that. That would be pretty cool. That would be a good response. I think the people would cheer. I think the people would be excited. It's like we pray, we are praying for this guy. God has anointed him, God has appointed him to be our leader. He is the man that God has given us to get us through this trouble, to get us through this battle, to get us through the future. We're gonna do everything we can to pray for him and to support him. This is his response is okay, I hear you. Now this I know. And it is a good thing when we know that the Lord can guide, that the Lord can provide, that the Lord can give us victory, that the Lord can help us through the troubling times, through the lean times, through the hard times. The Lord can help us through the good times. Do you realize that the good times are often the time when you're most likely to stray away from the Lord? Sometimes your faith will go on the back burner when times are good, when you're having lots of fun, when you've got lots of resources, when it's a beautiful summer and there's no Canadian wildfire smoke and there's no crazy mosquitoes trying to carry you away. You're like, oh, it's a beautiful day, no time for church, no time for God. But to put him first is a good thing to have that confidence, to have that knowledge that God guides, God can provide. Jesus, Luke 4.18, the Spirit of the Lord is on me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. And we acknowledge that we pursue, we follow, and we glorify in the Lord. We find that God is worthy of praise, God is worthy of glory, and we give it to him as an act of worship. And he responds, even in the Lord's Prayer, may your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Is that your desire? Is that what you want? Do you want God's will more than your own? When you look at American politics and you look at the way the world is going, and you look at the economy, and you look at all these different things, do you sit back? And say, I know what I know, and I know what I want, but I want what God wants even more. So I want the nations to hear about Christ. I want the world to be transformed. Now I keep seeing these news reports on YouTube that are saying that Iran has got all these people coming to Jesus. And I mentioned last week, India has got all of these people coming to Jesus. And in the UK, all of these younger people are coming to Jesus. And church attendance is up. It's so exciting to be ready for our turn for another wave of revival. Sometimes it takes difficulty, sometimes it takes hardship, sometimes it takes difficult or scary times for people to turn to Jesus. But when they are, when they do, we need to be ready to help disciple them and help them to grow in Christ. Last point. Number three, trust in the Lord more than anything else for protection and victory. To trust in the Lord more than anything else for protection and victory. Is that where you look for your protection and victory? When it comes to war and it comes to self-protection and it comes to all those things, it is good to have resources. It is good to have protective measures, but we need to trust that God will give us the wisdom to use them correctly, that God will give us the ability to do right in right times. So the verse seven, some trust in chariots and some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of our God. Do we trust in those things? As we pursue the things of Christ, it's exciting to hear stories that give us encouragement. There's one about George Washington that I've always found that was encouraging. In 1755, during the French and Indian War, a young George Washington, just 23 years old, was serving as an aide to British General Edward Bradcock. Braddock. Their mission was to serve the French out of Fort Duquesne, which is now Pittsburgh, but as they marched through the thick Pennsylvania wilderness near the Gahila River, they were ambushed by French troops and Native American warriors. It turned into a massacre. Nearly two-thirds of the British force was killed or wounded, including most of the officers. General Braddock was mortally wounded. Yet through all the chaos, Washington rode back and forth on the battlefield, rallying troops, carrying orders, even helping carry dying Braddock to safety. But with Washington, two horses were shot out from under him. Four musket balls pierced his coat, yet he was completely untouched. Washington himself later wrote to his brother, by the all-powerful dispensation of Providence, I have been protected beyond all human probability or expectation. Years later, a Native American chief who had fought in that battle reportedly said that he had specifically ordered his warriors to shoot at Washington. But after seeing that nothing could harm him, he concluded, This man is the particular favorite of heaven, and he can never die in battle. That is pretty cool. So God had a purpose for George Washington. God preserved him, and God has a purpose for us, and God can preserve us as we go through life, as we experience hardships and difficulties. But to put God first, what are some of the horses that we look at? Modern day so horses and chariots, they were the ultimate thing that you wanted for battle back in David's time. But here we have nuclear strength, advanced weapons, elite forces, drones, thinking our national security is mightier than any other government. But Psalm 33, 16 says a king is not saved by a large army. A horse is a false hope for safety. So we try to trust in AI, data, surveillance, and global connectivity, our satellites and everything, assuming that progress and information can solve every crisis. Or we trust in our retirement accounts, the dollar, job stability, believing when the market is strong, we're safe, or political power, treating elections, parties, or policies as if they're our savior. Psalm 146, 3. Don't put your trust in princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation. And so many other things. So even often we put our trust in religious performance. It's like we've we read all the chapters for our Bible reading and we do all these things and we serve in all these ways, and therefore God loves us when actually our heart might be far from the Lord. Verse 8. Come on now, verse 8. They are brought to their knees and fall, and we rise up and stand firm. So these people that are subject to what the Lord has done fall to their knees. They think that they're going to be victorious. Remember in the Old Testament where Moses has got the people across in the Red Sea, the waves have departed, all the people are running across, and then Pharaoh's, the Egyptian armies, oh, we're gonna get them. So they come racing across with their horses and chariots, and God's nope, not gonna happen. And he lets the waves crash over them and they all drowned. God brought them, the Egyptians, to their knees, but helped the Israelites, God's people to rise up and stand firm. And it was a good thing. 2 Timothy 1 12 says, I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to guard what has been entrusted to me. And we trust and we move forward in verse 9 ends with Lord, give victory to the king, answer us when we call. So just real quick, if you were to look when if you were to look in chapter 21 now, just across the page, I mean, mine's literally on two half pages right there, you could look across, and if you looked at Psalm 20, verse 1, may the Lord answer you when we are in distress. Psalm 21, verse 2 replies or states, you have granted him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. So God answered the king's cry for help. Psalm 20, verse 4, may he give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 21, two says, You have granted him his heart's desires. That's a good thing. Psalm 20, verse 5 says, We will shout for joy when you are victorious. Psalm 21, one says, The king rejoices in your strength. Lord, how great is his joy in the victories you give, acknowledging the victory that he had came from the Lord. One more. Psalm 20, verse 7. Some trust in chariots, some trust in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Psalm 21, verse 7 says, For the king trusts in the Lord through the unfailing love of the Most High, he will not be shaken. So we trust in the Lord, we move forward, we know that he can bring us victory. So Jesus actually was the mightiest warrior that ever brought us victory. And he did not ride in on a war horse, he rode in on a donkey. And so we can trust in Jesus to rescue us from our greatest enemy, the devil, and from sin, death, and hell. And we can't fight these battles alone. We need to help, we need to have Jesus help us. So we need to have a Christ, we need to be born again. We need to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. We need to be forgiven of our sin and set into our right relationship with Christ. And we can do that by asking, by believing that Jesus died on the cross and that he rose again and he ascended into heaven, and he's listening for our call right now. He is offering the free gift of salvation to whoever will receive it, but he doesn't force it upon you. You don't just get it by default. You don't get it because your parents had it. You don't get it because your grandparents had it or because your country said we're a Christian nation and said you pursue Christ. And maybe you call out in prayer, something like this: Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. Please forgive me of my sin and to come into my life and save me. I want to be the person you created me to be. I want to follow you to learn your ways and live for you. In Jesus' name, amen. And if that was the desire of your heart, we want to help you to grow in your new faith in Christ and give you some resources to do that, and that will be a good thing. But my biggest question to you is what are you trusting in? And how are you pursuing the Lord? When trouble comes, do you run to Him first? Do you expect victory? Do you expect answer to prayer? When answer to prayer comes, do you tell everybody about it? Do you proclaim Jesus' salvation in any way that you can, whether you're telling your friend or you're writing it on your social networking or you're writing a blog post or maybe you're gonna write a book, those can be good things. Next week, when we get together, we're gonna talk about being fearless when faith gives confidence and courage. So we're gonna talk about fear and overcoming fear, and that is a big thing in the Christian life. And when we can overcome fear, we can start to have more victory and start to even become more usable in God's hands, more successful in the Christian life.