Mostly Brave

I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you! Isaiah 41:13

This verse is actually the Lord speaking to Israel. He is assuring them of His faithfulness. As believers, we can find this verse meaningful when we feel anxiety, fear, or all alone. I love this because God isn’t saying, “try harder;” He is saying, “let me take your hand.”

If I am being honest, I need the Lord’s reassurance right now. I am ready for some things to work in my favor. I left corporate America a year and a half ago to write a book and now I am jumping back into the familiar, but yet unfamiliar, territory of working in a stressful job.

I have been trying to get my book published and have started public speaking.  I am not sure how to mix corporate America with ministry, the two don’t seem to mingle well with one another; the values and the language are just different. But, I know that in the Bible Paul made tents, Joseph was second in command over all of Egypt, and Daniel served in government under many kings and empires; all very familiar to my own situation. Working to make money and then working for the Lord.

I am also dealing with a terrible illness to which I will talk about at a later time. I am in constant pain and see myself having to choose daily to let the pain not dictate who I am. It is a lot to juggle, my business, ministry, and pain. Much of my life feels up in the air right now and that can cause me to have anxiety and an all-consuming fear.

I love the quote by Beth Moore that says, “Sometimes fear is the absence of faith. Other times faith may be choosing to believe God even when your heart is melting with fear. Perhaps, then, faith is tested by what we do with fear, not whether or not we have it,”

I mean, fear is a natural response.  Sometimes it pushes us forward and sometimes it holds us back. When I sing or speak in public I can be afraid, but more times than not, it ends up becoming a productive fear.  I have to remind myself to breathe in and to breathe out and calm myself by saying, “It’s okay Lisa, you are okay!”

The truth is if I step out to conquer fear on my own it will often hold me back from doing something great. I think fear is for sure the absence of faith but I think that going forward blindly to trust God, even when you are fearful, also shows that you operate with strong faith.

Listen, I get it!  Stepping out in faith can be scary! But I am choosing to lean on God when I can’t see the next step in front of me.  I know that what He has for me will be better than anything I might try to conjure up on my own.  There can only be one Savior.

Now, I am not trying to act like fear doesn’t grip me on the daily, because it absolutely does, but what I do with that fear is what really matters! Sometimes I fail, and sometimes I succeed, but I never want to be in a place where I don’t at least try.