The “F” Word…
The “F” word that I want to talk about is probably not the one you’re thinking of. But it is a word that finds its way into all of our lives and wreaks havoc on our well-being. FEAR. Of all the four-letter words I think FEAR is the worst. Nothing can cripple your life and cause you to freeze right where you are quite like fear. It can put a halt to all forward progress. It will steal your dreams.
Have you ever set out to do something, maybe something you have dreamed of doing for a long time, and when you finally take that first step to do it you are gripped with fear? Maybe you dreamed of starting your own business and you take that first step then questions of doubt begin to flood your mind. Who am I to try and do this? What if it doesn’t work? What if people don’t like me? What if I fail? Am I even qualified to do this? Is God really in this? Does God even care?
If I’m being honest, I wake up every morning with a few of these thoughts in my head. As Kayla and I step into this new season there are a lot of unknowns. So many things that we have to rely on God for. I think anytime you put yourself in a position of faith, fear will try to weasel its way in. And the first thing it wants to do is control us.
Fear wants to control. Fear wants us to second-guess all of our decisions. It wants to push its way into the driver’s seat and take you places you never intended to go. In this next season, the buck will officially stop with me. In the past, when I would say hard things from the pulpit the reality was that I was a guest in that pulpit. If people didn’t like what I said, they probably wouldn’t leave the church because I wasn’t the head pastor. But now it is all on me, and for the first-time decisions that I normally would have never given a second thought to, I have questioned because of fear. Because fear wants to control you and steer you toward compromise.
The presence of fear does not make you weak. The presence of fear doesn’t mean you lack faith. If you were 100% sure, you wouldn’t need faith. We have this tendency to feel shame at the fact that we may feel fear. The presence of fear or a feeling of fear is not the problem, nor is it something we should be ashamed of. It is when we let fear control us that we have a problem.
Courage is the ability to press on despite our fear. Courage is refusing to let fear control us. Courage is not going through life and never experiencing fear, rather it is doing what must be done despite our fears. It is pushing past our fears.
2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT) says, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.” Paul is saying this to Timothy because he was facing opposition and persecution because of his youth and his message. Paul is reminding him not to let fear neutralize him, but to instead remember what the Holy Spirit had placed inside of him.
So, let us refuse to be neutralized by this four-letter word, fear, and remember that God has given us a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline! Let us courageously step out in faith and boldly proclaim the truth of his word in every situation we are in. ‘Cause Lord knows, the world around us desperately needs it.
