Don’t Let Fear Stop You

“Don’t be afraid to be wrong; otherwise you’ll never be right”
—Tom Wicker, New York Times columnist.

        There are many great achievements that are still waiting to be attempted because of a fear of failure. It may surprise you but a fear of failure and rejection is also the number one reason why Christians do not share their faith.

        But the challenge is to see beyond the negative to the positive possibilities that lay before you. William Carey, pioneering western missionary to India, noted the significance of focusing on God’s potential blessing and then stepping out for God as he stated—“Attempt great things for God; and expect great things from God.”

        As you read the account of Jesus’ engaging with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4 you sense the great anxiety and fear the disciples had about being in the community of a people they viewed as enemies. They knew that they were on the wrong side of the tracks with no exit plan. Yet the words of Jesus shouts loudly for that very reason—“Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest” (John 4:35). Even as fear worked to remove the focus of Jesus’ disciples from the positive possibilities of what God could do, Jesus reminded them that the purpose of God was about to occur. Before them came a long line of curious townspeople coming to see the man of whom the woman at the well had told them about. Many came to know Jesus that day because faith and not fear was selected.

        What present conditions are seeking to blind you to the great potential of what God might accomplish through you? Will you make a decision to not give in to fear but to believe God? Take a moment and hand your challenge over to the Lord. Ask the Lord to give you courage and then to bless your attempts to honor Him where you presently find yourself.

“Risk are not to be evaluated in terms of the probability of success, but in terms of the value of the goal.” —John Maxwell

“God has given us a gospel so full that it needs a world for its field.” —A. B. Simpson