Fear

Welcome to first time guest blogger, Stacie Swicegood. Read on for a practical lesson on our old enemy, Fear. I’m sitting here thinking about writing and even talking to a friend about how to get started, and fear sits in. You know, the sweaty palms, heart palpitations, desire to run, avoid or do something else. It's like standing at the end of a very high diving board, looking down at the cold blue water, not knowing if you will sink or swim. If you are reading this, I jumped; whether I sink or swim is now up to God. He tells us in Psalms 119:105 that His word is a lamp to our path and a light to our feet. Have you seen the lamps from 100 BC or later? They are not the flood lights we have now. They light about 2 feet in front of you; the rest remains dark. I could use a flood light right now. The what-ifs are enough to send me packing, but the biggest, what if I fail, that thought is terrifying. Fear of failure is something, like many, I struggle with. I have forgiven my parents for being unable to tell me they were proud of me, but it does change how our brains are wired. We become overachievers, scared to let anybody down, and scared to step out of our comfort zone. This is where Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all submit to Him and he will make your paths straight.” For the overachiever control freak that I am, this verse terrifies me. Trust God? Don’t rely on my understanding? Submit? Let God control everything. Those feelings of fear come back right about now. But God But God promises in many places in the bible and in my own life that when we let him have control and let go of the wheel, he will bless us and take us further than we could ever imagine. He promises us our path with be straight but doesn’t tell us the terrain, only that he will light the steps we are to take. Trust in him, and know that the next step, no matter how terrifying, is exactly what God is asking.