How do you know if you’re moving in fear? Let me tell you
something that is helping me tremendously.
2 Timothy 1:7 says – God did not give us a Spirit of fear
but of power and love and self-control. People love that verse when they’re anxious
about something, or afraid they’ll suffer needlessly, when they need courage, or
when they feel alone. And it says God has given you the Holy Spirit to lead you
away from fear and into faith. Amen.
Now, notice that the Spirit leads you from fear into faith through
power, love, and self-control. And the verse puts self-control after
power and love. And this is the test that helps you see if you’re actually
being led by the Spirit or not. Because you can be bold, and passionate, but if
your actions are dominated by your impulses, you’re not being led by the
Spirit. You’re moving backward into fear.
And you move forward by having faith in what this verse
teaches.
Too
often, our traumas and tragedies define us rather than refine us. And we live
in defeat and thrive on drama. Instead of passing from victim to victor. And if
you want to get unstuck, if you don’t want to stay a victim, but rather, become
a victor, you have to pass the stress test.
Stress
comes to us all. It can be life changing, one way or the other, when it starts
with some kind of traumatic event, crisis, situation, or season of life. And
you don’t want to stay in the place of post-traumatic stress without
experiencing post-traumatic growth. Romans 8:28-29 tells you that God is working
all things together for your good, to make you more like Jesus. And that means
dealing with stress can be the instrument of your growth in God’s grace. Romans
5:1-5, James 1:2-4, and so much of the biblical narrative illustrates and
proves this point, that stress can become a strategic inflection point used by
God to grow your faith, and give you a victory that you might not yet
understand. And in a way that you cannot as yet see.
You
don’t have to fossilize in your failures and frustrations. God is not done with
you yet. What seems to be falling apart, can actually be God bringing new
things together. What you may consider limitations do not have to be
liabilities. They can be liberties. They can set you free from yourself.
Over
the years of my life, I’ve made many mistakes and left many situations in a bad
way. Because of that, there would be people who, if they saw this, would say,
“No way, not that guy, don’t listen to him. You don’t know what that guy was
like. What that guy did.” Well, I don’t have to deny what that guy was like, or
what that guy did, to say that I’m not that guy anymore. And you know what, I’ve
never really been just that guy… I’m God’s guy.
Hebrews
11:6 says – And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever
would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those
who seek him. Faith will act on the fact of who God is and what he says you
should do. And pleasing God means drawing near to God under pressure rather
than retreating to your old self. You keep walking away from Babylon and keep
walking toward Jerusalem. You move into new growth by applying your faith. And
that means your faith grows as you act on the fact that God will reward you as
you reengage instead of retreat.
And
that trauma can come in the form, not only of tragedy, but also of triumph.
Sometimes the issue is that you think you’ve achieved the growth because you
had the triumph. But the goal isn’t your triumph as much as the goal is God
himself, your relationship with him, and your character becoming more like his.
That is what the real victory is, the growth of your faith. And this victory
isn’t about you conquering the world, it’s about the world not conquering you.
However, this kind
of study isn’t an exercise in futility, but humility. Because all of this
uncertainty teaches us, and grounds us, and strengthens us in the main thing we
need to be certain of. God himself.
You see, even if
God tells us the future, and writes it down for us, we still can’t fully
discern all the details of it. We just know the basics of it. And we know we
can trust him in it and with it. This is the way that it is, not only with
prophecy, and eschatology, but our own personal lives and the lives of our
loved ones and church family and everything else. Fear God, trust God, love
God; that’s the answer to all our questions. Amen.
