Do you have a favorite scary movie? Or maybe one you watched as a child that scared you real bad? Like so bad it scarred you for a season growing up?
For me that movie was Hocus Pocus. I have never been fond of witches, and as a child watching that movie gave me goosebumps and terrible dreams. I recall dreams of witches coming to kidnap me or trick me into becoming a witch myself. To this day, honest, I haven't seen the movie again and cringe each fall as I see it promoted on TV.
In life, there are so many things we are scared of: scared of looking like a dork, scared of embarrassing ourselves, scared of messing up or failing, scared of hurting someone, or scared of getting our heart broken by someone.
Fear is an excellent tactic the enemy uses to prevent us from doing great things. Sometimes the enemy is so good at this, that we don't even begin to try. He helps us get so worked up thinking about trying that we give up before we have even started.
But friend, that is exactly where the enemy wants us! He wants us to be so scared and wigged out that we won't even try. And if we are being honest, we have all fell for this trap at one point (or maybe even several points) in time.
Our God is so amazing! He will not let us not grow weary in doing good things, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up (Galatians 6:9). He wants us to be brave, try new things, grow in our confidence and faith day by day.
His promises are real and he will always have our backs, even when (not if, but when) we fail. Yes- we will all fail at some point. He promises that there will be failures and that life will not always be easy. But his word also says that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6).
We can have confidence not in ourselves, but in God, when we try something new. We can have hope knowing that he is building us up and preparing our hearts, bodies, and minds for the next chapter. James 1:2-4 says: "count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing."
So what are you being a scaredy-cat about today? What "thing" have you thought about for awhile and just never felt the strength or courage to go for it?
I encourage you today friend, that if whatever "thing" that is will glorify God, then it is definitely worth trying! Let's be brave enough to try, knowing we may truly suck at first. But with Gods help and guidance, we will build up strength, we will build up perseverance, we will build up our hope, and he will see it through completion, because that is exactly who our God is!