overcoming fear.

I find in life that worry gets the best of me and debilitates me from doing or focusing on all the things that I know that I am meant to do. I often wonder how similar or different I am from the people we read about in the Old Testament. We just finished our study in the book of Joshua. Thinking about all they endured, I can’t imagine that they weren’t scared. We read about how they took out their enemies, how they were tricked by some of their enemies, how they almost had a civil war over the very idea of worship and the list goes on. Every time fear overcame people throughout the entire bible they start to take matters into their own hands and they always fail. Every time people trusted in God and remembered all the things that He had done for them, they were blessed.

I find that I have many fears. Fear of man, fear of being manipulated, fear of rejection, fear of hate, fear of not being good enough and I could go on. If we take a page out of the book of Joshua, as we experienced last Sunday, we can remember our past and see the workings of God in our lives.

A suggestion for this week, is to read a passage out of Proverbs every day. There are 31 Proverbs, one for every day of the month. This is just one suggestion, but we want to hear from you. What do you do to follow God and become less fearful?

-Alan-

Challenge

Picture this: you’re in the desert wandering for water. As you travel mile upon mile upon mile, from time to time will see someone pass you by. You ask them if they know where water is and they say, yes it's just a bit further north and point in the direction you should go. You keep traveling and have no idea if this is the path you should take at all. Finally after a 25 mile hike and when you are at brink of death, going on only faith that the people you saw were telling you the truth, you find the well. Its cool and pure water refresh you, and you are able to get to shelter, fill up your canteens and mark the spot in case you need to get there again.

This past week at Missio Dei we were asked the question, "What would you want on your tombstone after you have passed on?" I can’t imagine anyone saying they would want something negative said about them. But how do we journey on that path? If you’re like me one of the things I want to be said about me, or for people to at least remember about me is that I am a man of wisdom and patience. However I have this tendency to get the facts about something, draw a conclusion and act on something on impulse. It’s tough sometimes to wait, get all the facts and be slow to action. I have to wander through that time and hope that because things are not worked out yet, things will come together the way God wants and not what I want at the time.

My challenge to all of you is this. Think of one area in your life this week in which you struggle and are uncertain as to the effects of your life if you were to give it up. It could be unresolved anger, or lust, or fear of man, or whatever it is. Commit to give it up for the week, and then write about your experience and share it with all of us on the blog site.

-Alan