Faith vs Fear is a conversational topic that is really all around us.
You can find everything from jewelry to clothes with different quotes about overcoming fear, you can find sermons and speeches about it almost everywhere you look in both the Christian and secular communities.
I think that sometimes there is a misconception about overcoming fear with faith that DOES leave a lot of us with a sense of defeat if you don’t really understand the meaning behind the belief.
Like many of you, I have heard sermons and Bible stories from the time I was a kid that talked about overcoming fear with faith.
A perfect example is the story of David and Goliath. I would venture to say that a lot of us know that story and can resonate with it on some level.
Throughout our lives we all have some sort of obstacle, situation, task, or thing that truly seems way too big for us to take on. When we read about Goliath, the Bible talks about how he was even bigger than the biggest leaders and soldiers in the Israelites military.
To say that Goliath held an advantage over David is putting it lightly. And yet, we all know how the story ends in victory with David conquering this huge massive giant starring him down. Just like you have huge massive giants starring you down.
The lessons we take from the story of David and Goliath is absolutely one of faith.
Faith that you are sometimes putting your life in God’s hands in some way when you do what you know He is wanting you to do… just like David knew he was supposed to be the one to fight the giant. He was trusting God. Maybe that means he lives and maybe that means he dies with a purpose.
The results of your faith may not always have an outcome that is defined how you would expect it to be defined. God may have a purpose for your faith that is different than how you thought.
The result may look different than what you had hoped for but that does not mean that God did not have purpose that He is using in a way that you had not imagined. In a way that maybe you cannot even understand.
Where I think we can get lost in some of the stories of people facing these huge things in their lives and we hear them talk about all the faith they had and how without it they could not have accomplished this or they would not have been able to face that; I think sometimes we assume that to have a strong faith means we will not have fear.
And if you are one of those people that equate having a strong faith with having no fear; I think those expectations are simply just off base.
The more I have grown in the Word, the more life experience I’ve had, the more I listen to stories from people that are comfortable sharing a deeper side or their personal journey, I am understanding more and more – Having faith in the middle of a hard situation or whatever our big bad giant is – It does NOT always mean that all the fear is just gone.
It does not mean that if you just have enough faith that you will not be scared anymore. It does not mean that you will not have fear.
Faith over fear means that even when you are still afraid – You do the thing scared!!
You do it anyway!!
Do NOT keep putting things off and standing down from your giant just because you are waiting until you have enough faith; until you’ve said enough prayers, in the specific right way, for God to hear you and take your fear away before you are ready to step out onto the battle field!!
Yes, I know there are some occasions where God will take the fear away. I have experienced those myself so I know first hand, there are those occasions. And I know that it was God. It was all God in those circumstances where the fear was taken away because there was absolutely no way I would have been able to have the calmness of spirit that I had on my own. It simply was not possible for me on my own.
But, I do also think there are other circumstances where you can have just as much faith and trust in the Lord as you did in the past or maybe even more and you are still fearful. You are still afraid and scared. Maybe you have no confidence that the circumstance will work out or that things will go well.
I have had those experiences also and know them all too well. My voice was trembling the whole way through, I could hear it as words were leaving my mouth. I could feel the anxiety all over me, my face and neck had to be bright red as I could feel the heat radiating off me. I didn’t know half of what I said, although I prepared and prepared. I was terrified and yet I still did it afraid.
Faith is doing the thing scared.
Faith is doing the thing afraid.
Faith is doing the thing not knowing how it will turn out.
Faith is knowing that it may go according to our definition of well and it may not.
Faith is knowing that sometimes God has a different definition of well that we may not understand.
Faith is knowing that sometimes God has a different definition of well that we may not like.
Faith is knowing that sometimes God has a different definition of well that we may not want.
Faith is trusting God in all of it.
Faith is trusting God in the uncertainty of the outcome.
Faith is trusting God in the not knowing.
Faith is trusting God with our hearts, with our lives, with our circumstances.
Faith is trusting God with our actions and knowing that He does have a greater good on the journey no matter the outcome.
Faith is trusting God to be God.
For the longest time I questioned the strength of my faith because there were times that I was still afraid. There were times where I did’t think I was up to facing that giant because I was terrified, it could be for legitimate reasons or for reasons that really had no merit or relevance to the circumstances.
For the longest time I questioned the strength of my faith because on those occasions where the end result didn’t look like I had hoped, I thought God let me down because I didn’t have enough faith.
I didn’t understand that it is not always about getting to the place that you think is the final destination or the goal but about the road you walk along the way to get to the destination. Yes, sometimes that path takes us to where we thought and then sometimes God uses that pathway that you started on to teach you and guide you toward a destination that He has planned for you.
But, don’t miss out on the understanding that YOU DID NEED THOSE STEPS even the ones that were H.A.R.D. and messy, and wrong in order to be able to grow into the person you are so that God could then lead you to what He has for you.
Do NOT keep putting things off and standing down from your giant just because you are waiting until you have enough faith; until you’ve said enough prayers, in the specific right way, for God to hear you and take your fear away before you are ready to step out onto the battle field!!
God uses all the stuff!! All the stuff. The good, the bad, the messy, the fear, and the brokenness, to shape us into just the right us that He wants us to be.
So don’t just wait to step out into your life until all the fear is gone.
Faith is doing the things even when we are fearful.
Trust God to be God.
Trust THAT HE HAS GOT YOU!! … because HE DOES!!!
That does not mean it will always be sunshine and roses.
It does mean that you can break away from the chains of fear being held over you that are stopping you from doing the things in your life that you need to step into because God will never ever walk away from YOU – NEVER. God WILL NOT.
Much Love ♥️
Michelle