Fear Not Friday: In God We Trust! (Psalm 56:11)

Fear doesn’t wait for a convenient moment. It shows up when the armor doesn’t fit, when the pressure rises, and when the bad news somehow gets worse. We lean into a single line from Psalm 56:10 that cuts through the noise: “In God I trust, I will not be afraid.” David speaks it as a young man, long before he becomes king, and we treat it like a daily decision you can make when your emotions are loud and your options feel small.

We retell David’s path from fighting Goliath without Saul’s armor to facing something even more unsettling: Saul’s jealousy turns into a real threat on David’s life, and then David is captured by the enemy. That’s where trust becomes more than inspirational language. We talk about how faith, spiritual training, and practiced memory can hold you steady when your circumstances keep shifting, and why courage is often the choice to keep moving while still feeling afraid.

Then we follow the ripple effect of that ancient verse into American history. Abraham Lincoln leans on “In God We Trust” during the Civil War to unite a fractured country, and decades later Dwight D. Eisenhower makes it official as the U.S. national motto and places it on all currency, shaped by what he saw in World War II and the early Cold War. Whether you come for biblical encouragement, leadership lessons, or the story behind the national motto, the core question stays the same: will we trust God when we’re under pressure?

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs courage, and leave a review. What’s one moment where you’re choosing to say, “I will not be afraid”?

• Fear Not Friday encouragement to be bold and courageous
• Psalm 56:10 as David’s defining declaration of trust
• David facing Goliath without armor and still winning
• Saul’s jealousy and the danger that intensifies
• David captured by the enemy and choosing faith anyway
• Abraham Lincoln using “In God We Trust” during the Civil War
• Eisenhower’s baptism and push to put the motto on all money
• Why the motto matters as more than a phrase
If we're in agreement, let's just say Amen.

Transcript

Fear Not Friday Welcome

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, welcome to Fear Not Friday, where at the end of every week we come together to encourage each other to be bold, to be strong, to be courageous, to do not be afraid. Put your trust in God to fear

Psalm 56 And Trust

SPEAKER_00 0:14

not. And today is a verse from a psalm written by a young man named David. It's called his Golden Verse or Golden Poem, where he says, In God I trust, I will not be afraid. Psalm chapter 56, verse 10. Say together, In God I trust, I will not be afraid.

David’s Danger And Defining Choice

SPEAKER_00 0:35

Now this is David before he was king. He was still a young man. And of course, this is the young David who went to fight Goliath and fight for the nation, the people of Israel. He put on the armor of Saul, his king, but he was so young and so slender the armor didn't fit. So he actually faced the enemy without any body armor. And David won. He defeated Goliath. But what happened, David became so popular, everyone loved him, and the Bible tells us that there were many times that King Saul became insanely jealous of David. That he actually wanted to kill the young David. Now imagine your life. How bad can it get? Your leader, your king, wants to kill you. It can't get worse than that, right? It got worse. Then David was captured by the enemy. And what did he do? The king wants to kill you, the enemy has captured you. He took all the learning, all the training he had from his ancestors. He said, You know, no matter what, in God I trust, I will not be afraid. A very defining moment in David's life, in God I trust, I will not be

Lincoln And In God We Trust

SPEAKER_00 1:49

afraid. Well, David also influenced a man 3,000 years later. His name was Abraham Lincoln, the president of a place called the United States of America during the Civil War. And Lincoln, as he spoke more and more, had more religious connotations, more Bible in his speeches. And he wanted to put the words in God We Trust to bring the nation together in this horrible time of the Civil War to put in God We Trust on our coins. And that happened in 1864.

Eisenhower Makes The Motto Official

SPEAKER_00 2:20

And 90 years after President Lincoln, there was another president named Dwight Eisenhower, one of my favorites. I'm not sure why history kind of downplays Eisenhower, but he's an amazing man. The United States was the last country to enter World War II, the last. And the leader of the Allies was Winston Churchill. And he had all these generals from England, from Canada, from Australia, from the remnants of the Army of France and Poland. And even though the United States was the last to enter the war, he surprised everyone when he chose Dwight Eisenhower to be the supreme commander, to be the architect of the plan for D-Day. And as the supreme commander, Eisenhower was an eyewitness to what Marxism and socialism and communism had done to the world. He became president, elected in 52, inaugurated in January of 53, and listen to this. Ten days after inauguration, he asked, at the age of, I believe, 62, to be baptized. He's the only president ever to be baptized when he was president. Obviously, God had an impact in his life. And then he went to Congress, and it was after World War II, and the Cold War had begun, and again he saw the evils, what Marxism and socialism, how they would corrupt religion. And he saw what happened to communism and the atheist. And a lot of the atheists were socialist and communism. And he wanted to tell the world that we were different. Now, Eisenhower was the first Republican president in 20 years in the United States of America. Not a partisan comment, just a historical fact, but he also had a Democrat House and a Democrat majority Senate. He went to them and said, I want to do two things. I want to take in God We Trust and put that not just in our coins, but all of our money in God We Trust. And I wanted to make it official. That our national motto is no longer e pluribus unum, which means out of many one. He wanted to make our national motto in God We Trust. Eisenhower wanted to ensure that every school child in America knew what made us different from the Marxists, from the socialists, and the communists was that as a nation, in God we trust. I share with you that story because I spoke to many schools and I was surprised how many kids, when I asked them, what is our national motto? They did not know. Except for one group. I talked to the Capitol one time, I was working with then Representative Rick Green, and I talked to his homeschool group, about 120 kids, and I asked them, What is our national motto? They all knew, In God We Trust. So there you are, my friends. What happened 3,000 years ago? When you think things are bad, they can't get any worse. Think about David. It got worse, but he still said he put his trust in God. He said, In God I trust, I will not be afraid. And David's example as a leader influenced 3,000 years later another leader named Abraham Lincoln, who also influenced President Eisenhower to make sure the whole world knew to tell all the Marxists, all the socialists, all the communists that in a place called the United States of America, in God we

In God We Still Trust

SPEAKER_00 5:45

trust. And please allow me to share one last thought. Our national motto is In God We Trust. But as we celebrate 250 years of a place called the United States of America, let me tell you, I believe it's more than just in God We Trust. Our strength as a nation, the reason we've been around for 250 years is because in God, in God we still, we still trust. In God we still trust. And if we're in agreement, let's just say Amen. Amen. Amen.