Let Your Faith Be Bigger Than Your Fears

I felt compelled to write this blog because I feel like we all approach seasons where we doubt ourselves and that doubt can become crippling if we let it linger around too long. God has dreams and visions for your life. It all starts in the book of Genesis, God gave Abraham the dream of being the father of many nations. He was already 75 years old when he told him and Sarai to head out on their great adventure. It takes a lot of faith to believe in a dream like that. Can you imagine God puts a dream like that in your heart, would you be willing to just up and move if God asked you too?

God’s dream is your calling. When you realize his dream for your life you will know hope. He starts with this dream as he works within your life to build faith. We must live by faith and we serve God by serving others. Base your dream on what you think God can do and live by this faith.

God wants us to dream big. He wants us to use the imagination that he gave us, but the struggles of faith are real and we all experience them. Doubt is the enemy of imagination and Satan’s darts of doubt seem to fly in our direction frequently. Doubt and fear neutralize what God wants to do in our life. It takes courage to imagine. Most people don’t imagine because they afraid of failure. Our imagination is great when we are young, but as we age our imagination becomes more rusty and you stop imagining what things could be rather than what they are. We then become stuck and paralyzed in fear of the unknown.

It takes courage to imagine. Courage means even though you are scared to death you make the decision to do it anyway. Have you ever been so scared to death to do something? Don’t let fear dominate your life. Say to yourself “even though I’m trembling in fear, I will move forward anyway.” God shows up when you make that decision. Don’t wait until all the fear is gone to do it because it’s never going to go away. Just do it while you are afraid and the fear will subside. You have to move away from all your fears and insecurities and feelings and just go for it. Even though you’re scared to death and fear you might fail and so on, just do it anyway.

James Chapter 1 tell us “if you need wisdom just ask God for it, but when you ask you must believe and not doubt because for a doubtful mind is like the wave of the sea that’s driven back and forth and tossed about by the wind.” We must banish all doubts. You have to doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs. You can either choose to either let fear govern your beliefs or you can let your beliefs be governed by your faith. If we let fear dominate our beliefs we become stressed out and worried about what others think and a whole bunch of nonsense. All that leads to is a miserable life.

Sarai is a prime example of the practice of faith. Sarai and Abraham had some doubts. She even laughed with doubt about the God had planned for her life. God had told Abraham he would be a father of great nations, but they couldn’t see it happening and they tried to take matters into their own hands, but that wasn’t God’s plan, so it backfired. Once they put all their trust and faith in God, he delivered his promise to them and in Gen 21:6 Sarai’s “laugh of doubt had turned into to a laugh of triumphant joy.” and we can share that joy with them.

You don’t have all your doubts resolved and questions answered to follow Jesus and enjoy all the benefits. Anytime doubt surfaces go back to dreams and visions and look back on all the plans God has for your life. I learned about dreams and visions in the bible from a wonderful series by Bishop Edward E Robinson. Every time doubt creeps in I always go back to this wonderful series for some encouragement. The series started with Habakkuk 2:1-3 “I will stand upon my watch to see what he will say unto me when I am reproved (corrected) and the Lord answered me and said write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie; though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Read that last part again. When God puts something in your heart, don’t let doubt diminish all that he has appointed you too. Be like Abraham and Sarai and have faith to what God has told you because it will sure come, it will not tarry. God wouldn’t give you a dream if it wasn’t meant to be fulfilled. You were made for more than you are now. Live by faith so the dream and vision becomes clearer and clearer. Be someone who overcomes obstacles by tackling them in faith instead of tiptoeing around them in fear. The passage I stand on is Jer 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.”

Talk it over:

What have you been dreaming of doing? If you believe this dream is from God, what should you do with it? What should you give up or let go to be able to have more time for things that matter?

If you’re interested in learning more about dreams and visions you can email me for more details on the series.