Challenged Again
It’s always a funny, déjà vu feeling when you’re challenged again by something you’ve previously written. That happened to me last week as I was preparing to teach the second lesson of “Queen Esther’s Secret.” I love teaching this material, but I quickly realized I wasn’t fully walking in faith instead of fear—again.
Fear Taking Over?
As I read over the lesson and made a few updates and edits, I realized that so much of the stress I was carrying—right then!–was from fear. I followed my own advice and started to identify the fears. What was I afraid would happen? Why wasn’t I taking action on a couple of items? I answered these questions by filling in the blanks. “I am afraid that …” or “I don’t want to take this step because I’m afraid … will happen.”
Then, to turn it around. I turned those fear statement into faith statements. “The Lord is with me, therefore, I will proceed with …” and “The Lord is leading me to do this, so in faith I will step out and move forward.” In some things, I needed to ask the Lord for wisdom first. Part of my stress and fear was because I wasn’t sure what to do.
“People Stress”
It helps to know what your personal stressors or triggers are. There are certain things that cause each of us to slip from faith to fear faster than others. One of my triggers is when things feel out of control. Especially, if people are doing things that affect my life in a negative way (and I don’t feel I have influence with them) or if their decisions are causing me stress or hurting people I love, I get “wound up.” People. They can really “up” the stress levels, not to mention the blood pressure! (Ha, ha!) If only they would do things the way I think they should be done…you know, the Right Way! (Just kidding. Kind of.)
If I have to confront someone—even if I know it’s completely necessary—that definitely causes me stress. I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings. I really care about how people feel and how my words, attitude and actions make them feel. But I have to lay down that fear of hurting someone and ask the Lord what I’m supposed to do. Sometimes confrontation is the path to life, the path to growth and change. If God is telling me to confront, then I need to do so in faith that He is wise and all-knowing and will use the conversation for life.
Walking in Faith
I stepped out in faith in a couple of ways last week. Deciding to take those steps didn’t make me feel brave. I had to “do it scared.” But that’s ok. The second half of the Esther lesson about leaving fear behind and walking in faith teaches us that favor follows faith. Indeed it does. We can move from fear to faith, step out in obedience and know God will bless us and work through that very obedience. (Hey, that’s what this week’s lesson in Esther is about–obedience!)
In all things, we need to intentionally walk in faith. These are scary times for a lot of people, but we can still walk in faith. Faith that God’s Word is true and He is faithful. Faith that He will always provide for His people, as His Words says. Faith that He is always with us and that His plans for us are good, to give us a future and a hope.
Faith Statements
We must not let fear rule our lives. We must starve fear to death and feed our faith. Faith is one of the key steps on the path to victory (Heb. 11:6) God is good. We can trust Him in all things. Let’s actively identify fears, give them to God and then choose to walk in faith. Let’s turn our fear thoughts to faith thoughts and our fear words to faith words.
Where is fear impacting your thoughts and actions this week? Identify your fears and turn them into statements of faith. (You can do all things through Christ who is your strength!)