Fearing the Unknown

Fear can grip you in its icy claws until you feel like you want run away and just disappear. Fear is one of the most crippling feelings. It can stop you from doing things that perhaps need to be done for your own sake. Fear is what keeps us in our comfort zones and prevents us from making a difference in the lives of others. It is a feeling I know well. There are so many things I’m terrified of, and they are not necessarily physical things. Often the things we are scared of are those that cause us to step into the unknown. We fear when we have to do something that doesn’t come naturally to us. But we’ll never grow if we don’t learn to overcome our fears.

The problem is that our fear only really evaporates when we do that thing we are afraid of. I’m not talking about doing nonsensical things; there are some things that we should be afraid of. The kind of fear I am talking about is the fear that keeps us from walking with God into the more that He has. And walking with God always involves taking giant and scary leaps of faith. Sometimes we cower away and refuse to budge. But we’ll only be robbing ourselves. I’m writing this for myself as much as for you. Fear is often a huge thorn in my side. At this point in my life, I’m terrified of the unknown future. I’m terrified of growing up. I know that soon I’ll have to make the choice of stepping further out of my comfort zone than I have ever done before. Stepping into the unknown requires inner courage that we can only get from God.

Taking that leap of faith may be daunting but what’s waiting on the other side is perhaps better than we could ever imagine. And yes we may fall, but Jesus is always there to catch us. What we have to realise is that God is bigger than our fear and He’s bigger than the things we fear. There is nothing on this earth that is too big for God to handle. We need to learn to entrust our fears to God and believe that He is in control. Taking that step into the unknown may feel like you’re flying over a dark chasm, but it in the end it’ll be worth it..... and you would have learned how to soar like an eagle.