Fear.
It’s something that all of us have experienced at one time or another. There are different kinds of fear–some are perhaps even healthy. But others can destroy us if we let them. I know this: we cannot base our lives upon our fear.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.-Isaiah 41:10
I must be transparent and tell you that fear was one of the biggest obstacles in my own spiritual journey. I tend to be a “what if” kind of girl. “What if this doesn’t work out? What if I fail? What if other people don’t understand?” I struggled with feelings of inferiority based upon my own fear of failure. I was afraid to use the gifts God had given me. Worried about what others would think.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
The other day I heard someone make the statement, “Fear is the opposite of faith”. I stopped to think about it and realized how true it was. If God truly has called us to something, why should we be afraid of it? If we are following His will and word, we must trust that he will go before us. When our faith is truly in him, we have no need to worry.
You are probably familiar with the parable of the servants found in Matthew 25. This passage of scripture tells the story of a master who traveled far away for a time, but gave three of his servants a number of talents before he left. When their ruler returned, two of the servants had wisely doubled the amount of the talents given to them. They were then rewarded by their master. However, to the dismay of the lord, the third servant had buried his meager talent and had done nothing to increase it. He offered several excuses for this, one of them being found in verse 25, that began with this statement: “…And I was afraid.”. This servant let his fear keep him from being a good steward of what God had given him.
How many times do we, like the unprofitable servant, miss out on many blessings because of fear? How many times do we let it keep us from reaching out to others, to becoming more for the Lord, or from breaking out of our petty comfort zones? Oh, what we could accomplish for the Kingdom of God if we became fearless! Let’s intentionally become the brave women that we were created to be.