What is that one thing that scares you? I am talking like the childhood fear that would wake you from a dead sleep and send you running to mama or daddy for comfort. The one that would send you into night sweats until you realized it was just a dream and your mind was playing games with you. Life is a scary thing. We live in fear of sharing the gospel because of what someone might think or say about us. We live in fear of looking at someone the wrong way because we do not want to offend them. We live in fear of many things, but the question is how do we learn to live fearless in total abandonment of ourselves and turn it into full trust in what The Lord has planned for us? How do we get to this point in our life? This is something that I still struggle with, living fearless. Over the next few weeks, we are going to learn how to become fearless in life.

            Faith and fear cannot exist together. Faith is trusting without seeing but knowing that God knows best and is working whether we understand it or not. While fear is the total opposite: unbelief or questioning God’s plan. The first step in becoming fearless is having complete faith in our Father. We must also understand that faith is a gift and not something that we can provide by ourselves. Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” The Christian’s faith is a confident assurance in a God who loves us, who knows our thoughts, and who cares about our deepest needs. That faith continues to grow as we study the Bible and learn the attributes of His amazing character. The more we learn about God, the more we can see Him working in our lives and the stronger our faith grows.

            As Christians, we long to have an unshakeable faith in our Lord, but how can we have this in our day-to-day lives while conquering our fears? “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” Romans 10:17. The study of the Word of God is the only way to gain this kind of faith. God has always wanted His children to know him completely and to rely on His direction for our lives. It is often hard to hear what God wants to say to us when we have already decided what we want Him to say. Learning how to slow down and start spending precious time in prayer and meditating or listening to Him is when we can successfully overcome worry and fear. With that said we stumble of course and our Father is understanding. He knows we are human, and we fail but when this happens, we must set the pride to the side and fall on our face asking that He first forgive us, but also asking that the next time that this sin or situation arises we can have the strength to not fall into that trap.

            Romans 5:3-8 says “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” As you go into this week, I challenge you to work on your faith. Let’s start making it a priority to grow into the man or woman that God wants us to be by first learning to have total faith in our God. Throughout this week we will continue to face various trials that will cause us fear, but God assures us that we can know a calm peace through every situation: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” Philippians 4:7.

~Stephanie