Connecting the Dots: What God Is Doing When Life Doesn't Make SenseSample

The Courage

Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die. A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine. - G.K. Chesterton

When life starts changing, it can be frightening. What was familiar is swept away, and we’re forced to learn new ways of living and operating. Turning points can create lots of anxiety, fear, worry, and concern. Sometimes we even feel lots of frustration and anger.

These feelings are all a normal part of adapting to change. But that doesn’t mean those feelings have to control you. But the only way to conquer those feelings is to recognize them for what they are -- fear-- then move forward into the unknown with courage. We have to face our fears.

Our greatest fears are typically wrapped up in our concerns about not getting three specific things:

1. Security -- physical, emotional, financial
2. Connection -- feeling seen, heard, understood, and valued in relationships
3. Empowerment -- feeling a sense of control and freedom in your life

Think about what’s making you worried or anxious in your current season change. Which one of the those three is your concern connected to?

We were made to need all those things. There’s nothing wrong with you for wanting them. But we were made to find all those things in God’s love. Only God's love can offer the perfect security, connection, and empowerment we want and need.

When life changes and we feel threats to our security, connection, or empowerment, we have to remind ourselves that God’s love is the perfect source of peace. It’s in that love that we'll find the courage to overcome our fear.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear.” (1 John 4:18)

When we have confidence that nothing can separate us from God’s love – not life or death or the future or the past (Romans 8:38-39)—we’ll have the courage to move forward in spite of fear.

And make no mistake, fear doesn’t just go away – it has to be faced in small doses. The only way to overcome fear is to take one step at a time toward the thing you fear. Like an inoculation that injects you with small doses of the virus you want to become immune to, facing your fear in small doses causes it to lose its power.

You may never become fearless, but you can fear less.

The more you move toward the thing you fear – trusting God’s love to sustain you—the less power your fears will have over you.

Take some time today to name what you feel is being threatened in this new season. Security, connection, or empowerment. Then spend some time in prayer, presenting that fear to the Lord. Be honest about your fear. Then embrace his love, and he’ll give you courage to move forward in spite of fear.

In the words of Basil Kind, “Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”

When you make the decision to be courageous and embrace the change, you’ll find you aren’t alone in the journey. There is always a Guide to help you on the journey.

Which is what we’ll talk about next -- The Guide.