Heaven Land Devotions - Go Being Afraid

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There are many kinds of fears too many to list. There is one fear that stands alone which is the Fear of the Lord, but that stands alone and is not anything like the fears in this life. "The fear of the Lord is His treasure." Isaiah 33:17.

It is a distinct fear that comes when God calls you to do something you do not feel you measure up to. Where you think you will seriously blow it, do it wrong and be rejected. This is the fear of humility. The kind of fear that is enveloped in the fear of the Lord. When you are afraid of disappointing Him. Afraid you are being prideful or going ahead of Him, for example.

There is a certainty that it is from Him, and the praying begins, as there is a kind of pressing by the Holy Spirit. The thing being asked to do by the Lord only intensifies, and no matter how much it is questioned in prayer, God only increases it instead.

Finally there comes a time that relingquishment, acquiesence and acceptance comes, and though the fear still remains, His peace comes.

Sometimes the Lord chooses not to give the courage at first but later. Having courage means you need to feel the fear and go for it anyway. There is a spiritually powerful war-like, training method to it. If we were to wait to feel fearless every time we are called into a hard thing, then we would lose an edge God wants us to have. Our faith would become empty and lifeless.

I love the words of Elisabeth Elliott who said, "Sometimes when fear does not subside, one must choose to do it afraid." There is a great advantage to understanding and growth that can come no other way. The outcome is always glorious and full of victory.

Amy Carmichael put it this way, "Grit is the reinforced concrete of character." Going afraid becomes a choice when you realize God is not going to take it away. Then you choose to go being afraid because you fear the Lord of Love much greater.

Then the fear departs in the going and you "mount up with wings as eagles...you fly high above the earth."

"The soldier is summoned to a life of active duty, and so is the Christian." The very nature of the calling precludes a life of ease."

- William Gurnall