This is a random analogy, but as a kid and sometimes now, l preferred nice hot baths and showers. Coldwater was good, but the first step towards taking that cold shower was a dread. I know what’s coming. The shivers down my spine, that moment of goosebumps, but soon after taking a cold shower after a hot day, I would relax, and that dreaded feeling soon turned comfortably after a hot day. The familiar cold would disappear, and I would find myself not wanting to leave. This also happens sometimes before I go swimming. In the beginning, the pool feels so cold, but once I’m there for long, I start relaxing bit by bit, and the fear disappears.
Many of us can have many fears. We can have what-if questions and fear the unknown but as we learn to boldly walk in faith, the once uncomfortable feeling of being outside your comfort zone slowly goes away after you took that step to do it anyway. Despite the unknown of what if or despite the known (like knowing the cold that comes with it!). After those bold steps of obedience, what felt was crippling, will lose its power. After praying what seemed to cloud, your mind begins to go away. The fog is chased away, and now your mind is clear.
Though it can be scary to talk to that person, scary to trust God knows what He’s Doing, scary to surrender all into His hands, scary to trust where God’s taking, you, etc. you can trust that this temporary moment of discomfort will lead to peace. You’ll become stronger, your trust in God will strengthen, and you’ll learn obedience.
When we ignore the voice of fear seeking to cripple our faith. We begin to receive and bear the fruit of a sound mind, peace, and wisdom. We are able to move without anxiety feeling as though it’s overpowering us because in Jesus not only are we promised peace, but we are guaranteed His with us and that when He leads us, we will have success. We need to continue to move in this heart of not listening to the fear but move anyway.
So don’t let fear control you, but allow God to be your strength, peace, and guide. Though anxiety can attack, and you can have an abundance of thoughts, go to God with them all and trust that though you walk through the valley, God’s hand is upon you. Though you go through the fire, you won’t get burned. Though you see danger, you won’t fear evil. Though you feel insecurity and fear, you have peace in Him.
Romans 8:31
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God’s Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Doing something afraid.
Isaiah 43:2
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2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you
2 Timothy 1:7
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7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
-etty