Daily PresenceSample

In college I went to a state park that had huge cliffs overlooking a lake. My friends wanted to jump into the lake from the cliffs, but all I remember is the feeling of my heart beating faster just looking over the side of the cliff. I had jumped off cliffs before, but this was much higher. The thumping in my chest and throat ended all thoughts of fun. However, I also didn’t want to appear afraid. Fear can be truly powerful. One of the most difficult challenges is trying to figure out whether our fears are leading us to be cautious or leading us to be paralyzed from moving forward. Fear is an unbridled emotion that disregards wisdom and trust. And truthfully the situations can feel similar. When is cliff jumping foolish and when is it fun? When are we being restrained from action and when are we being paralyzed by unneeded fear? In the verses today, the Israelites were facing fear as people around them wanted to stop them rebuilding the city. The danger and fear were huge. Would it have been cautious to not build? The answer is no because God has told them to rebuild. In fact, 3.3 said that “despite their fear…” they went on to do what they were called to do. Godly wisdom and trust tempers caution and controls fear. What does that look like? Well, did God tell me to do something? Then we need to overcome our fear by trust, no matter what our emotions are telling us. Of course, the challenge to that is figuring out when God is telling us something vs our own mind/desires telling us something. Always check scripture first—if it lines up with scripture (in context!) you are probably on the right road. If you feel compelled to pray for someone but the fear of rejection, the fear of drawing attention, the fear of messing up, or anything similar hits—that’s where trust and wisdom must take over. Jumping off a perfectly good cliff for no reason? Well you might need to at least gather more information! For the record—I jumped and did not use caution. Yes, I survived and no I never did it again, especially after finding out that several people had broken a leg from jumping off the cliff in the past!