Catrina M. Blount

Sometimes I wonder what the holdup is. Do you know what I mean? There are so many people that I talk to who feel God calling them to bigger and better things than they are doing right now. But for some reason, they are not moving forward. So what is the holdup? Why don't we move forward? It seems to me that the answer is fear. We are afraid of rejection, afraid that some person will not like what we are doing, afraid that we will not receive external validation for our internal move. To be honest, I am the worst. I am guilty. I sometimes feel like I have spent my whole life doing what others have expected, but very little time doing what I believe that God wants me to do.

But I have been praying that I will be able to break out of the box - do something different, something that is unexpected of me. I want to be greater than I am. Not for myself, but for the Lord. Perhaps I, and those like me, are like Gideon. We are called by God to greater things.  The big difference is, Gideon didn't know it at first, but we do.  We are in that place where we have heard the voice calling us out from the hiding place of normalcy and familiarity.  So why have we not gone?

I told you - fear.  We have boxed ourselves in so long that even though the cage is open, we are unable to come out of the confines we are used to.  But not for long - it takes only a search of the Word to know that God's calling comes with courage to get it done.

In Joshua, God tells the title character that he has been chosen to lead the children of Israel to the completion of the journey Moses started.  Over and over God tells Joshua to be very courageous - strong, of a good courage.  Not only that, a search of the Bible reveals that every time the Angel of the Lord appeared with a great commission for someone, the first thing the Angel said was, "Do not be afraid."  The Angel of the Lord's entrance on the scene comes with a fear eraser - the power of God and the love of God. 

1 John 4:18 bears this out:  "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love." (NASB).  The King James version states "hath torment" in the place of "involves punishment".  Either rendering rings true. 

When we let fear control our lives and stop us from pursuing the call of God, we wind up tormented - unhappy with where we are.  Most of the time we punish ourselves.  Have you ever said to yourself, "I know I should be further along than this"? 

I want to encourage you right now to make up your mind to hear the word of God - do not be afraid.  Do what is in you to do for the Kingdom.  You may have to start small, but start.  Walk to the edge of the cage - the door is open.  You may run back to a safe corner every now and then, but that's alright.  A little fear is healthy; it stops us from doing things that would cause  us harm.  But let your fear be the fear of the Lord, for it is the beginning of the wisdom you will need to fulfill your destiny.  Proverbs 1:7 (NASB) states it like this:  "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction."

To be bound and paralyzed by fear is a no-no.  God did not send His Son to die for us so that we would live in fear.  He came to set us free.  And Jesus did not send the Holy Spirit to us to contain us in our fear.  He came that we might walk in liberty. Galatians 5:1 (NASB) declares, "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."

The seatbelt sign has been turned off. You are now free to move about the kingdom.  Go ahead!!!!!