Fear Freezes; Faith Frees

Before I began walking with Lord, I walked with fear as my constant companion. Strangely enough, you probably wouldn’t have guessed it. I was a bit of a dare devil. As a child I was one of those who had to climb to the highest branch in the tree and sit there holding on tight as the branch swayed in the wind. At the beach I would be the one trying to make it out to the “next” sandbar, fighting the currents of the “big” waves in water that was over my head, determined to reach the point where I could touch again when I hit the sandbar. Then, I was a gymnast through college, swinging and flying from bars and tumbling across a 4-inch balance beam. Basically, if there was a triple-dog dare, I was there, ready to give it a go. My whole family was like that. Why was I like that? Well, my father wouldn’t tolerate us being fearful of silly things. He taught me to fight through the fear. He was a courageous man. Yet, perhaps even then, God used my earthly father to plant a realization within my heart that being lead by fear was wrong. God is good about that, implanting Kingdom concepts within our heart even when our heart isn’t exactly following Him yet. It’s just one of those many ways He entices us to find Him.

As Christians, we are still faced with a daily battle against fear. We pray and ask God to reveal to us His plan and purpose for our lives, and we rejoice when He places a passion in our hearts for His plan. Then, when we walk out of our quiet time, into the “real’ world, we are bombarded with all the reasons why His plan won’t work. Mountains rise up in front of our path, and the way He wants us to walk suddenly seems treacherous and fraught with danger. Fear of failure sets in, and we are frozen in place, too frightened to take the first step.

Don’t feel badly, we are in good company. Some mighty men of God stood frozen in fear when God revealed His plan to them. At times they tried to tell God that He had the wrong person. Look at Moses. His first response to God’s plan was “But why me? What makes You think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt?” (Ex 3:11 The Message). His next objection was “They won’t trust me. They won’t listen to a word I say.” (Ex 4:1 The Message). Even when God countered each of these objections, Moses continued to object! “Master, please, I don’t talk well. I’ve never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer.” (Ex 4:10 The Message). After God countered that, Moses finally just said, “Oh, Master, please! Send somebody else!” (Ex 4:13 The Message) I have to laugh when I see that last one. That is so me. Can you imagine, arguing with God like that? Yet, that’s what we do, when we are too fearful to walk the path He has given us.

Moses wasn’t the only one. Look at Jeremiah. He tried to tell God that he was too young and that he didn’t know anything. To which God replied that He would tell Jeremiah where to go and what to say. Look at Joshua. God was telling him that he not only had to fill Moses’ shoes as leader of the Israelites, he had to lead them over the Jordan river to conquer all the people living on the Israelites’ Promised Land. Even though Joshua didn’t protest, God’s first talk with him was all about having strength and courage. In the first chapter of Joshua, some variation of “Be strong and have good courage” was repeated five times, four times from God, and once from the Israelites. Apparently, Joshua needed some encouragement!

We need encouragement, too. As God reveals our part in His Kingdom, we are at once overjoyed and humbled that He has chosen us. Much like Peter, when Jesus called to him to walk on the water, we want to walk and do everything our Savior has called us to do. Yet when we step out into the world, as Peter stepped out among the waves, our focus is removed from our Savior and His miraculous plan for us, and placed on the waves and the storms that stand in our way. We begin to sink, too afraid to take another step.

Take courage though, fellow wave-walkers! All Peter had to do was to call out to His Lord, and Jesus reached out His hand and pulled him to Himself. When our own faith wavers, as we lose the focus that God has given us, all we have to do is call out to God, and He reaches out and restores our faith. As we recognize His “perfect love” for us, it casts out all our fears. Our faith grows, and mountains are moved, storms are calmed, and our path is made clear. We step forward once more along the path He has carved for us, which, when viewed through the eyes of faith, is no longer treacherous and fraught with danger. It may have challenges for us to pass through, but our faith frees us to walk through them, believing that nothing is impossible with God. We believe that we can tell this mountain to move from here to there, and it will.

So, it all comes down to the way we walk. Do we choose to be frozen by fear, or freed by faith? God is so faithful. As He reassured Joshua again and again in Joshua 1, “I will be with you. I won’t give up on you. I won’t leave you”, God reassures us. “This is the path I have for you. This is what you will do. Go. Do it. Don’t be afraid or discouraged. I will be with you wherever you go.”

The great thing is, that with each step that we take in faith, our faith grows and our fear shrinks. We become bolder and bolder as we cast off our fears and begin to walk in faith. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a strong mind. 1Tim 3:6-7. We begin to walk in His power, in His perfect love that casts out all fear, and we lay claim to the sound mind He has given us to discern His presence that will never leave us. We begin to see more and more miracles, and our faith grows and grows. And it all starts with just one step out into the waves.

Kutless has a song out now called “That’s What Faith Can Do.” It says, “I’ve seen dreams that move the mountains, hope that doesn’t ever end...I’ve seen miracles just happen, silent prayers get answered,....that’s what faith can do.”

God’s got a plan for each one of us to step out in faith to further His Kingdom. The question is...what can your faith do? Take that first step and see!

Walking in His faithfulness and love,
Jeanne