Tag Archives: Fear

Slaves To Fear, Children of God

“I’m no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God.” – Jonathan and Melissa Helser, “No Longer Slaves”

Why is it? Why are we slaves to fear? We so often get caught up in the “fear” parts of our lives, and we forget the “child of God” parts.

I believe we forget we are children of God because we don’t spend nearly enough time in conversation with God the Father. For me personally, the more time I spend in deep conversation with the Father, the more I feel I am His child. And it is true. Fear doesn’t enslave me. The closer I am to the Father, the less fear has a grip on me.

When I was a child, the fear I felt during a storm was lessened when I was near my parents. Didn’t you feel that way too? What do your own children do when they are filled with fear? Think about what happens at night during a storm, or when a child has a nightmare. Where do they go? To whom do they cry out?

They run to the bed of a parent, or they call out for a parent. “MOMMY!!!!!!!!”

I do the same when I’m scared. I suspect you do as well.

But now, as an adult, I don’t run to a parent. I run to the Father. I am His child.

This running though. Is it necessary?

If I’m truly no longer a slave to fear, I shouldn’t have to run to Him. I should have a tight, personal, relationship with Him. A constant conversation and communication if you will.

For me, no longer being a slave to fear means I don’t let fear take hold.

Am I perfect at it? Absolutely not! And I never will be.

But I can certainly improve and strive to be better.

Every day I can be intentional about my time and conversation with God the Father. The more time I spend with Him in deep conversation, the less fear I have in my life.

Trials and struggles will still come. Fear will undoubtedly still creep in at times. Having a tight bond with the Father doesn’t guarantee me complete perfection here on this earth. The elimination of fear will only come in Heaven. But I will daily strive toward that perfection. Reaching and trying is all I can do while here on Earth.

Join me.

“But to all who believe him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn – not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.” – John 1:12-13 (NLT)

BRUTAL HONESTY

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I’ve been getting bombarded with a similar message these last couple of weeks. It’s like a bunch of people conspired to gang up on me and are undertaking a well planned barrage. They are strategically hitting me with essentially the same message. They have spaced their attacks at perfect intervals. If I get comfortable with the message fading away, suddenly another round is launched. Podcasts, books, sermons, posts on social media, etc. Pick a method of delivery. It is being used.

In her Right Where You Are podcast, episode number 87, Tammy Helfrich asked this question:

“How are you thinking about yourself?”

Here are a few keys thoughts I wrote down:
-Society pushes us away from thinking about ourselves.
-We are called to understand what God wants us to be. This means spending intentional time focused on ‘self’.
-Am I being honest with myself? Do I honestly believe I can create the life I want? What limiting beliefs am I holding?

I’m currently using Kyle Idleman’s devotional, “40 Days To Lasting Change – An AHA Challenge”, and he has been hitting me hard with the word “Honesty”. He talks about confession and truth and being open to others with our struggles.

From page 109, this quote hits home hard:

“Voluntary confession is when we regularly and voluntarily acknowledge our sin and honestly admit our weaknesses to someone in our lives.”

Three words continue to hit me: REGULARLY. VOLUNTARILY. HONESTLY.

Honesty. Honesty. Honesty.

Brutal honesty is the concept I continue to hear from multiple sources. Honesty leads to healing. Honesty brings improvement. Honesty is important to advancing toward our dream. Honesty is important to realizing the calling God has for my life.

I sent out this tweet recently:

“God wants us to look at the simple. We don’t need the huge gesture or epic adventure. If he tells you to do something simple, simply do it.”

I believe this is where many of us get stuck, me included.

We see the big gestures and the epic adventures of others. We are pulled in by the incredible actions. We desire to make those big gestures and epic adventures part of our lives too. We want to show our friends and followers the incredible things we do for God.

And that is a problem.

We too often ignore the simple.

If we are brutally honest about what God is asking us, we must acknowledge how often we ignore, or don’t listen for, the simple requests. We often think we are called to the grand and glorious! We often misinterpret what He is telling us, and requesting of us.

We don’t want to be honest.

Is fear keeping us from being honest?

Clay Shaver discussed this in his podcast titled “To Be Honest” (episode 80).
This verse from Isaiah is important to the discussion:

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”
— Isaiah 41:10

Do you fear being honest with yourself? Do you fear the truth God is speaking to you?

“If you can’t be honest, you’ll never get to the BEST VERSION OF YOU.” – Clay Shaver

My friend Matt Ham hits home too:

“God doesn’t ask us to have all of the answers, He asks us to show up. He will take care of the rest.” – Matt Ham

Are you afraid you have the WRONG answers?

I am.

If I’m being brutally honest with myself, I’m terrified of having the wrong answers. The fear of having the wrong answers keeps me, and you, on the sidelines.

If your brain is anything like mine (what a frightening thought for you), it bounces between multiple thoughts.

Mine goes something like this:
“God’s got this.”
“There’s absolutely NO WAY I can do that!”
“God is always right.”
“How am I supposed to know what I’m thinking is from God!”
“I’m scared.”
“I’m too terrified to move forward.”
“Wow. There are some great truths in this book I’m reading. I should share my thoughts with the world. Other people probably need to hear this too. It can’t just be for me.”
“Don’t post that. Nobody wants to hear from you.”

And on, and on, and on…

Here’s what I believe is the key to getting past this fear, and being brutally honest with what God wants for us.

Heart.

Yep. As simple as one word. Giving in to fear, and hiding from the honest truth, is a heart issue. It is most certainly NOT a head issue.

Brutal Honesty
Many of us are very good students of other people. We have learned how to “read” people and their habits. But, are any of us a “student of self”? Are we willing to be honest about what we see in our self?

Are you afraid of turning on the black light?

What horrible stains would a black light reveal in your life?

No matter how much we deny them, the stains remain. We may cover them up with a clean and spit shined life on the outside, but all our efforts to scrub away the deep down stains are futile.

If we are honest, we’ll let the stains show through and explain them to those around us.

p.117 of “40 Days To Lasting Change” – To be brutally honest with ourselves about our current reality, we must face our excuses. Doing so might be humiliating. It’s embarrassing. It’s painful. It’s essential.

Task: Define the true reality of my circumstances. What is the state of things as they actually exist in my life?

Anyone up to the task? Are you truly able to be brutally honest with YOURSELF???

Speakeasy Goals

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Shhhhhh…

We all have our Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG). The pie in the sky dreams we share with our friends. This stuff comes spilling out over a cup of coffee on a raining day or when we are around the campfire on a summer evening. But, we also have “speakeasy” goals.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cameronmaddux/

“Speakeasy” goals are the ones we don’t tell anyone. We keep these goals hidden and secret. We don’t want anyone to know these goals.

Why is that? What could possibly keep people from telling others about something exciting to them?

Fear of rejection is probably the number one reason. What if they think I’m nuts?

Or, how about this doozy we’ve ALL had issues with at one time or another: “I tried it once. I even told people about it. But, I didn’t follow through. Why would I tell anyone this time?”

Yep. I have one of those. It fits squarely into the “I tried once before and failed” category. I’m tempted to tell you what it is, but then it would no longer be a “speakeasy” goal for me. It would be out in the open. Frankly, it scares me to tell anyone about it.

I’m more than willing to tell you all about the book I’m writing. I haven’t failed at it yet. I’m even making progress toward completing it (small progress). I’m also willing to talk about my struggle with depression and how it has impacted multiple areas of my life.

As I think more about “speakeasy” goals, I’m trying to determine if I have more than the one. Have I whispered any goals to my wife or to my best friend? I can’t really think of any right now. I should probably keep a running list as they pop into my head.

Do you have “speakeasy” goals or ideas in your life? Are you willing to share them?
Let us know in the comments.