Fear Not

Change. Something that seems to be a common struggle. People fear the unknown without fully trusting the Lord with their plans or future. With many big changes in my life upcoming in the near future, I look to my future and fears begin to cloud my mind. Between finishing my degree at Grand Canyon University and preparing to move to Croatia for full time ministry, there are lots of things that are on my mind. Are my preparations/education enough to enable me for effective ministry? Will I be able to navigate the learning curve of being a new missionary in a new culture? What if I am unable to get residency? Am I ready to face all this alone?

I have always been someone who likes to prepare to the best of my abilities. Rather than trusting the Lord with all these fears, I stay awake at night trying to think about every possible outcome that could happen. I let my mind run a million miles a second before realizing how faithless I am being. Psalm 23 has always seemed like an over quoted, feel good passage to me, but recently I have been understanding what all the attention is about. God is with me, guiding my every move. Even though I will endure suffering, He will be with me. It is not my job to worry about all the outcomes, I just have to trust His outcome. When I inevitably make a mistake, He will discipline me so that I can learn and grow.

The world is a dark place to be. Between earthquakes and riots, hatred and division, things appear to be hopeless and scary. It seems natural to allow fear control our decisions. Rather than thinking clearly, we respond by covering up our real feelings and blaming someone or something else. Acknowledging fears and learning to grow through them is what God calls us to do. Gideon, Moses, and even Jesus had fear, but rather than letting it control their actions, they trusted God to lead them through it.

Going back and reminding myself of God’s faithfulness to people in scripture, and my own life, is one way that I move through fear. In order to grow we must have faith. I have recently been realizing the profound truth that faith is not passive. Faith allows us to trust God through fears because we trust His infallible truth. When we do not apply faith and instead passively allow circumstances dictate our response, we are not allowing His truth to change us. Although it takes faith to triumph over fear, faith frees us to discover what God has in store.

What is your fear costing you? For me, it can be sleep and peace. What fears do you need to trust the Lord with and what do you hope to gain by doing this? I pray that you would be encouraged to take that step and choose faith over fear.