When God laid it on my heart to spend a long time writing and reading about faith I wasn’t exactly certain why. As I wrote these entries, however, I realized something about humanity (and myself) I hadn’t known before. Faith is so important because there are only two ways for people to go through their lives. People are either filled with faith, or consumed by fear.
This is true in the lives of both Christians, and non Christians. Faith or fear. Those are the things that define our lives. This has been true in my own life, and not in a good way. I allowed fear to control me, and for years I would never take the steps toward the ministry God had in store for me because of fear. I was afraid of running out of money, afraid of failure, afraid of being a leader, afraid of ruining success with some big mistake, afraid of rejection, afraid I wasn’t good enough, afraid of being filled with too much pride, and afraid of spending my life serving a God I didn’t have complete faith in. My fear drove me away from the things I was meant to do, and toward other things I wasn’t so afraid of.
I could’ve missed out because I was afraid. So many do. How many times have we heard to stories of those who were at companies like Apple in the early days, but they left before things got big because they were afraid of taking risks? How many of us have refused to go back to school like we know we should, refused to witness like we know we’re meant to, refused to ask out the girl we really want to, refused to pursue the dream we have without a guarantee of success, and refused to really believe in the God who loved us enough to send His son to die for us?
Where does our fear ever get us? Nowhere good. It helps us live half lives where we are only ever shadows of who we really could have been. It is only when we cast out our fear that we can truly become the men and women that God made us to be. I can only write these words because I’ve seen through the fear. I may be able to feel the fear still there gnawing at me, and wanting me, but I no longer let it tell me what to do. I refuse. I want a life controlled by faith, and not fear.
Let go of the fear. It may be trying to convince you that it’s smart to be afraid. Don’t listen. What would have happened to the Jewish people if Moses had obeyed His fear, and refused to go to Egypt? Where would we be if Jesus had given into His fear, and He refused to die for us? If good people hadn’t overcome their fears the Bible would be a much different book. History would be much different. Hitler was a scary guy. What if everyone had given into him because they were afraid to face him? Having the faith to believe he could be defeated is why we live with the freedom we do today.
We do not want the lives that our fear would have us lead. We must overcome, and learn to have faith in the Lord, faith in Jesus Christ, faith in the Holy Spirit, and faith in ourselves. Faith cannot stop us from failing, but it can keep us from giving up. When we learn to stop living our lives worrying about running out of money, worrying that we’re not good enough, and always being afraid we will really start living. Life without faith is empty. It is death. Fear is an enemy. Have faith, and live.
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