By Robin Walls
I never realized how much of my life
I have been living in fear. I don't mean incredible fear or frightening fear or debilitating fear. I just mean small every day fears that inevitably were influencing my steps.
For example, I always want everyone to like me so when I meet someone for the first time, my goal is to end that conversation secure in the fact that I won them over. That stems from
fear that I won't be liked.
At work, I aspire to a level of success that will make people feel like I’m indispensable out of
fear of not being valued. Ive also noticed that sometimes I don't take chances or make choices to get me closer to dreams that I've had for years. The reason~ because I'm
scared I won't be good enough or that I'll fail. If I don't try, then I won't fail.
I realized that I’ve just been going along living my safe ordinary life when the life God wants me to have is an extraordinary one. His imagination for my life is so much greater than anything I could ever dream of if I only reach out to Him.
When Grace Family Church challenged us to take part in the 40 days of Community this past Fall, a few friends and I decided to accept the challenge. From the first Bible study, God was working on me. He had me taking baby steps to get out of my comfort zone and not stay fearfully standing in a safe spot.
The Holy Spirit was giving me signs. He was showing me words like bold and courageous. Specific scriptures kept popping up in front of me. He was softening my heart ...and at the same time, little by little, my fear as well.
As I started to lean into Him more and more, I noticed that fear was guiding my steps less and God was guiding my steps more. I prayed to Him every morning for the courage to be bold not just for big things but also in my day to day life.
As I slowly started to feel bolder, I was put in the path of a very nice older gentleman. He was kind and soft-spoken, but his words were very deliberate and well thought out. When I started talking to him, I didn't even realize he was a Christian so it surprised me when he asked me if I prayed. I replied that I prayed a lot. He told me not to just pray for courage and boldness, but to pray for them while thanking God as if I’d already received them. He told me to go to Mark 11: 22 - 24 and pray over it:
“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”Studying this scripture really made me realize that because I wasn't looking to God to find the strength to work through these fears,
I was making my fear bigger than God, the Creator of the Universe, the Maker of Heaven and Earth. I was once again making the mistake of trying to do things my way instead of asking Him for guidance.
Without looking to God for His help,
I couldn't handle the fear alone. To overcome these fears, I had to keep my eyes fixed on God and realize that He is bigger than any fear!