Fighting Fear

There has been a lot that has culminated in me to finally taking the plunge, developing a website, beginning a blog and admitting finally that I am a writer and that it’s God’s calling. From my FB post announcing this website and the fears I had in doing it, there were so many people going through the same thing I have been going through: crippling, paralyzing fear.

Fear is the emotion the enemy uses to keep us from trusting that God is bigger and more powerful than he is.

Sculpture from Stockholm, Sweden. (2016)

After submitting my first blog post and putting it out in cyberspace, I literally got light-headed and felt like fainting–that’s how fearful I was!

And then I stood up and decided I had work to do. I needed to run the race that has been marked out for me.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus…” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NIV)

Hebrews 12:1-2 always seems to pop up in my life at the most extraordinary times. It seems to be the answer to most of life’s issues or problems.

Here’s how I break this Scripture down into simplistic terms:

  1. Throw off everything that hinders.
  2. Throw off the sin that easily entangles (and in my opinion, distracts!).
  3. Run your race. BTW: it has been marked out for you specifically.
  4. Keep your eyes on Jesus.
  5. Have perseverance. Keep running.
  6. There are witnesses.
  7. Jesus is the finish line. (Which means our end point finish line is Him!)
Who am I watching? Keeping my eyes focused on the One who saves.

Now I know that the Scripture says that it is a “great cloud of witnesses” and the Greek word for “witnesses” is actually martyres, a word we understand in English. Martyrs are those who have borne testimony with their blood and they offer encouragement to us in our race by their example of faith. (Ellicott’s Commentary)

But I wonder. Since God is outside of our time, our space and our dimension, could it be that we are also running the race for people who are watching who will yet be future martyres?

The world is watching. People around us are watching to see how our faith plays out. And by us taking a leap of faith into what God has for us, by refusing to be held back by fear, by executing the calling, can that possibly strengthen someone else’s faith?

The enemy does NOT want us living in the freedom Christ has won for us at Calvary. Fight the instinct to hide!

We owe it to God to go forth and do what He is calling for us to do and run the race. We owe it to future martyres–who just might be our children, family, neighbors, acquaintances or complete strangers.

You have permission, Friend, to pursue what God has for you. And it will be awe-inspiring to others simply because you’re striving forward toward Jesus.

Be inspired by the Holy Spirit; GOD IS MOVING!

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