Do Not Be Afraid

"Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe." Proverbs 29:25

Well, the "verse of the day" is on a roll this week in my book. Today's verse kind of piggy-backs on yesterday's verse, because it's one of the reasons we choose not to share our faith. Because we're afraid. We're afraid of making the other person mad at us, or we're afraid of becoming "the Christian" in the office- we're afraid of the rumors and the gossip that may result in sharing our faith with others. Maybe there's a little bit of real physical fear. We live in an age of tolerance, and while people may tolerate our faith, maybe there are people who will not tolerate actually expressing some form of it. That fear, the fear of other people and what they may say or do, is exactly what this verse is talking about.

And let me say something about that- that is exactly what the enemy is hoping for. When you close your mouth and choose not to say anything about why you are different, the devil is thrilled. You've gotten caught in his snare, and he loves the fact that you are afraid to speak up. But as this verse says, when we put our trust and our faith in God, he will keep us safe. He will protect us from the slander and the gossip, and he will protect us from getting physically hurt by angry people. Placing your trust in God is a big deal, and He will reward you accordingly.

But maybe, just maybe, today's fear is a different kind of fear. Maybe it's an internal fear- a fear that I wrestled with so many times and over and over with. And that is a personal fear that if I get close to God, I'm going to turn into some kind of freak. I so didn't want to be "that person", the one who talks about God all the time- the one who always has the Christian music going and a Bible open and ready to read. I've already found myself on the outside enough times in my life that I didn't want to take that step and do it all over again. Oh I was so afraid to just let go and open my heart up to what God might have to say. What if he told me to do something I didn't want to do? What if he told me something I really didn't want to hear. I wrestled with that for a long time. I let the fear I talked about already clash with my internal fear and that certainly prevented me from taking that step of faith.

Have you ever spent time around someone who was just totally in love with God? First of all, it's contagious, you want what they've got. You can see that extra sparkle in their eye, the extra lift in their step. You watch them accept challenges head on and be excited to see what God's going to do next. And you see them embrace and love each and every person they come in contact with. Eventually, that longing and that desire to experience what they were experiencing won out. I placed my faith and my trust in God, I trusted that this was what he wanted for me and I took that step, and I've never looked back.

You know what? I have yet to hear something from God that I didn't want to hear. And I have yet to be told to do something that I wasn't expecting or already wanting somewhere in my heart. God shaped me to be a specific person, and as that specific person I have specific desires, wants and needs. And He knows that! He knows what makes my heart happy, and because He loves me, what He wants from me fits around who I am and what I am as a person. He made me this way for a reason. I love thinking on that. I love thinking that I am how I am so that I can fit in some specific way in God's Kingdom.

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14

I'm still working on that first fear. I'm working on the boldness and courage to speak up when I need to speak up. But it'll come, I trust in that.