‘Do not fear, but believe!’ Mark 5:36b

Nothing holds us in the throes of death so thoroughly as fear.  Look within and around you and see if it isn’t true.

Perhaps you’re afraid to make that big change in your life. Perhaps you’re afraid to commit and to settle down. Perhaps you’re afraid of something you’re hiding deep down inside. Perhaps you’re afraid of something you’re wearing on your sleeve. Perhaps you’re afraid to die. Perhaps you’re afraid to live.

Whatever the fear that has you in its grasp, it’s keeping you from living the life God wants for you. And you’ve handed the power over to your fear that rightly belongs to God alone — the power to influence your beliefs and your behaviors. Rather than living a life that is expansive and free, you may be living instead a life that is small and isolated.

And this is as true for groups of people as it is for individuals. Look at just about any church, for example, and you’ll see the power of fear hard at work diminishing vision and subverting hope. It may be a fear of becoming too large or a fear of becoming too small. It may be a fear of doing too much or a fear of doing too little.

But fear needn’t have the last word in our lives — not if we’re willing to name it and tend to it. But that leap of faith — the leap by which we finally decide to be completely honest with ourselves — is often too much for us to handle.

So begin again — find the will to live — and begin taking your first steps in faith — starting not from your own weakness, but from God’s strength — not from your own doubt, but from God’s promise to set you free.