Fear and Faith

     Fear versus Faith. This must be one of the biggest battles of all time. I mean, think about it. Statistics say that one of the most common fears is public speaking. I am without a doubt the most solid, living proof of that. Somehow, when God tells me to speak to someone, or even write a note and stick it in a kid’s locker, I freeze. By that, I mean I get deer-in-the-headlights scared. If I follow through with it, I’ll open the locker door and my heart will be pounding so hard I think it may jump out. Maybe to everyone else, it looks like it’s no big deal for me, but I’m terrified. For what reason, I don’t know.

Nehemiah built a wall. Noah built an Ark. Abraham was told to kill his only child. He didn’t write words on fragile paper and put it in a metal box crammed full of other assorted items. These are different matters entirely. The things God asks us to do are never impossible with His power, just as we are never incapable. The amount of trust and faith God requires of me is so little, yet I freeze at the mere thought. In all things, I know I am to trust Him wholly and completely, without hesitation or doubt. Perhaps that is the greatest secret to fearlessness: trusting in the one who dispels fear as if it were a flame in the middle of an ocean. What is a piece of paper in eternity? What harm can come from words that is worse than what may come of silence? Maybe in a new year there's more to resolutions of diets, savings, exercise routines, and promises to stop what we never should have never started. Maybe there's a deeper level: one not of flesh and blood but one of purity, holiness, and new beginnings. One that says "Follow me." and requires every bit of our being to do so. And who knows? Maybe it's when you lose something you can't live without that you realize you're more alive than ever.

 
Haggai 2:4-7 "But now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ declares the LORD. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land,’ declares the LORD, ‘and work. For I am with you,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’ “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty."