“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
Matthew 7:9-11
Good things.
Do you ever fear the future? Do you ever look at the past and think you’ve already missed your chance at a good future? Do you worry that your past is a reflection of all your future will ever be? It’s ok. I have too. But something changed for me when I began to recognize and actually believe in God’s goodness and faithfulness.
God only wants good things for us. He wants to bless us. But how often do we actually stop to remember that? We let our perspectives get clouded with discouragement, loss, hardship, doubt, and the fear of the unknown. All of the worry and fear keep us focused on what we might lose rather than the freedom we gain when we let go and trust God.
You know what? I’m going to call fear what it is. It’s a thief. It robs us of our peace, our hope, our confidence, and a fruitful life that reaches out to help others. When we are fearful, we live small lives, focused on ourselves. Sometimes we might even fear that God has plans for us that we would never choose for ourselves. When we fear that God will give us something bad, we start to not trust Him anymore. We think our way to handle a situation is better. Wrong. We never know better than God.
How do you know when fear is speaking to you? It tells you that you can’t do something. It says you aren’t good enough. It says you messed up to badly to change. It says you aren’t qualified to go a new direction. It says you will certainly fail so you should definitely not even try. It says we will miss out on what we want if we wait around for God to do something. It says we are prideful and are only serving ourselves if we step out into God-given dreams. (all. lies.)
Fear has one purpose. It keeps you from reaching your full potential. It keeps you from living an abundant, God-fearing, holy, and blessed life. It keeps you from reaching out to others with the very gifts God gave you to share with others. It keeps you locked up, limited, and living only to get by.
Do yourself a favor. Don’t live in fear.
Live in love.
“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”
1 John 4:18
God loves you. He always has. He always will. He loved each of us even when we were dead in our sins. Don’t let Satan tell you otherwise. Those little fears and doubts tell us that God won’t approve. They say we will disappoint God if we fail. When we learn to live in the love of God and accept His freedom and mercy, fear has no place. It vanishes.
The love of God sets us free to be exactly the people God designed us to be. We don’t have to fear failure, defeat, disapproval, wrong direction, or mistakes. God knows we are not perfect. We can wake up every morning to a new day and receive His goodness all over again. We have the opportunity to live every day abiding in Him and trusting in Him rather than living out of a worried and defeated mindset.
Fear keeps us bound up and unable to move forward. Enjoy your life. Receive God’s love and live free from fear.
Takeaway Action/Challenge: What fears are you facing today? What’s keeping you from your next step? What are the hard things in your past, the challenges in your present, or the fears of the future that keep you from leaning into God’s love and trusting Him with your life? Take those to the Lord in prayer and ask for His wisdom and truth to help you in this season. Receive His love in every part of your life and walk forward in the confidence that He sees you, hears you, knows your heart, and is walking with every single step of the way.
