Fear is an interesting emotion; I don’t think it’s a coincidence the command “do not fear” is written in the Bible 365 times. Once for every day of the year, however, we still deal with it. With that said, let’s talk about fear.
Fear covers a lot of ground and has different
meanings for different people. There is a fear of spiders to fear of success,
the list goes on and on. I’ll let you fill in the sentence.
I am fearful of
_________________________________.
Fear can save your life, or it can paralyze
your future. It can be a subtle tiny whisper in your soul, or it can get your
heart pumping and evaporate every bit of saliva you’ve got.
The dictionary’s definition:
An unpleasant emotion
caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause
pain, or a threat.
Fear can have you imagine an
entire scenario in your head that chances are will never happen. I heard a
saying one time “do it afraid.” I think we can agree fear may or may not be a
good thing.
In 2014, I was living in
Franklin TN. I thought it was a permanent move, but God had other plans and I
moved back to Florida. I was living with family members, one being my grandson,
Ezra. When I arrived, I was technically homeless, my things were in storage, I
had no job, no money and to be honest was depressed.
These are some of the
statements fear declared to me; You are a loser, You are a terrible example to
your kids, You will never have a home, You have no friends, You don’t really hear
God, You are an embarrassment.
How’s that for a pep talk!
Something the Holy Spirit
taught me years ago was if you are drowning in your circumstances throw a lifeline
to someone else who may need it. That at times is easier said than done. I’m
not saying you should disregard your feelings, some of them were valid, I lost
a lot of friends who thought they knew God’s plan for me better than He did. I
just knew if I parked here, I would become all the things fear shouted.
We lived on a very busy road;
it was a cut through for local work traffic so in the morning there was a
constant line of cars driving by. As I walked to the mailbox one morning I
noticed the faces of the people driving by, they looked miserable. As the cars
sped by I saw one rushed annoyed face after another. The Holy Spirit whispered
to me, “start Ezra’s ministry now.” Ezra
was around 12 months old at the time, so I thought maybe people were right, I
don’t hear God correctly, but it was so clear “bring him to the road with you
in the morning.”
Fear quickly replied, “are
you crazy this is a dangerous road and people drive like idiots!”
The next morning, I carried Ezra
with me to the edge of the road. I thought for sure people would be yelling at
me or blowing their obnoxious horns as there was no sidewalk for safety. I held
onto him for dear life. As we stood there, he began to wave at every person
that drove by. People started noticing
him before they got in front of us and began slowing down. One stressed face
after another began to warm up right before our eyes. They started to wave back
and some even honked their horns which Ezra thought was awesome. It was truly a
miracle in the making watching God use this sweet boy to bring joy, even if for
a moment to His children.
It became our morning ritual, and we began to see people looking for Ezra
so they could wave good morning. We prayed for our new friends, and I had a new
sense of purpose. God replaced fear with
joy, and I was able to embrace my new assignment. It gave a whole new meaning
to God brings joy in the morning.
My sweet Ezra had started his ministry.
Fast forward 10 years… My son and his wife decided that when their children
turned 10 they would take them on a mission trip. Ezra was now 10 and the plans
were in the making for him and his dad to travel to Mexico.
Instantly I could hear fear, MEXICO!!! Are you crazy you can’t take a
kid to Mexico. Fear continued shouting “do you have any idea how dangerous this
is?” The list of valid reasons went on and on. To make matters worse the day
before they left, a hurricane hit Mexico! I was hoping the trip would be cancelled,
surely this was God saying NO. I had to keep reminding myself that his parent are
prayer warriors and if God said it was OK then who was I to think I knew God’s
plans for Ezra better than God did.
Hmmmm where had I heard that before?
While they were away my son would send pics and videos of the trip. As soon as I saw these two of Ezra praying over people on the street, I felt an instant poke in my spirit.
If
we let fear rule our lives, we can miss out on so many assignments God has for
us. We always need to be in prayer over every opportunity, but I pray you won’t
let fear have the last word. If you know it’s from God, do it afraid.
