Fear and Great Ideas

It's a funny thing about fear, it sucks all the possibility out of an idea. All the wonder and excitement of what could be awesome, is turned to a dark overcast drudgery of all the things that could go wrong and all the reasons we can't do it anyway. We start with thoughts like: "Wouldn't it be totally awesome if ..." and "I can really see God changing lives through..." but end up with "What would everyone think if I failed..." or " You know these things NEVER work out as planned." And "Besides why would God want to use me anyway. I'm just...." Rather than moving forward with thoughtful and prayerful planning motivated by the possibility of something wonderful, we become paralyzed by all the threats and potential pitfalls we see. From there we can become bitter and cynical, especially if we did start working toward our goal or dream and it seemed to fail. More often, however, the great idea, the dream, God's inspiring calling is simply discarded, buried really, under a pile of all the things we fear will go wrong.

One Reason We Often Fear Our Biggest Dreams

Satan knows how we are affected by fear and uses it to stop us from stepping forward in faith to do the great things God wishes to do through us. Satan knows that a child of God, lead by his Christ's spirit can do HUGE damage to the kingdom of hell. Satan also knows his most effective attack is to use a preemptive mind strike to get us to voluntarily stop following God's greatest plans for us. He has far less work to do and much less damage to control, if he can simply get us to give up before we have even started. Satan actually gets an added bonus if he is successful in twisting our thinking. Once we give into the "It can't be done." or "It's just to much work." type of thinking, we usually always try to infect the dark deadly virus on others who might be considering doing something extraordinary, something inspired. In essence we end up doing satan's work for him!

God's Awesome Solution

As with any problem, a huge part of Christ's solution is Himself. He invites us to look past our fears to see the incomprehensible power He is willing and desiring to use for our benefit. His only requirement? That we let Him lead, that we get out of the driver's seat and invite Him in. When we do, hang on! It will be quite a ride, because what can be done is no longer limited by our abilities and frailties. We give God permission to use His universe creating power to open doors, improve our skills, and send us the support and help we need. Impossible is no longer a part of our lives! God has a dream for each of us and He places that dream in our hearts as a longing, an often quiet but persistent urge to wonder "what if?". He designed us to have a dream, to live that dream and find astounding joy and fulfillment in the growing dependence on Him such a huge dream creates. But, God does NOT take away the fear. Even Christ, as He poured out His soul just before his crucifixion, shook and sweat blood from the agony and fear while pleading "...oh my father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me..." Mathew 26:39 KJV God's solution doesn't remove the fear, it simply enables us to move despite the fear. Ultimately, that is true courage: acting at the very time we fear to act. God designed us to be courageous, not blindly, blissfully, effortlessly successful.

Next time that nagging thought tries to disturb your peace, or shear terror seizes you at just the thought of attempting a great idea, pray as King Jehoshaphat did when his city was totally surrounded and he was greatly outnumbered: "neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee." 2 Chronicles 20:12 KJV Turn your situation over to our Eternal Father and ask for faith to believe He will come through for you.

Faith to Face the Fear

It is by faith in God's power to help us, and in his devoted love driven desire to use that power for us, that we can face and walk through the fears in a fantastic dream. In faith, I see myself like the father who came to Jesus to have his demon-possessed son healed. Jesus, in essence, asked him, "Do you believe that I can do this?" "...the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, I believe, Help thou mine unbelief" Mark 9:24 KJV (emphasis added). We as Christians have some faith (we believe Christ for our salvation, right?), but we also have a lot of doubt, unbelief, and fear. What was Christ's response? He simply followed through on His promise to supply all our needs, even our need for faith in the face of fear. We just need to look to Him and ask! Remember, there is a reason He is the creator of the peace beyond understanding! Will you ask for a fear conquering faith today? He is longing to answer!