‘I'll judge you by your own words,’ the king replied. ‘You know I'm a hard man, who as you say, takes what doesn't belong to me, and I harvest what I didn't plant.
You were not given a spirit to enslave and terrify you once more. No, what you received was the spirit that makes you children in God's family. Now we can shout out, “God is our Father!”
Where there is love there can be no fear. God loves us completely, and this love drives all our fears away. If we do fear, it's because we fear being punished, and this shows that we have not been fully remade by the completeness of God's love.
“Don't be afraid,” Samuel replied. “Even though you have indeed done all these evil things, don't give up following the Lord, but dedicate yourselves completely to worshiping him.