Living Courageously: You Can Face Anything, Just Do It Afraid (13 page)

Twelve men were sent into the Promised Land as spies and were to bring back a report. Ten came back and stated that although the land was very good, there were giants in the land and they were afraid to go in. They made this statement: “We were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight” (Numbers 13:33). People see us the way we see ourselves. They felt inadequate, and the giants realized it. There was no point in them fighting—they had lost the fight before it ever began due to their fears.

Only two of the spies gave a good report saying, “We are well able to conquer so let us go up at once” (Numbers 13:30). These two were Joshua and Caleb, and they had a different spirit from those who were fearful. They both went on to do great and mighty things, but we never hear of the 10 spies again who saw themselves as grasshoppers.

How do you see yourself? It is said that our self-image is like a photo we carry of ourselves. Take time to stop and reflect on how
you think of yourself because a lot of other things in your life will be determined by those thoughts.

A fear of inadequacy and failure can put your life on hold. It causes you to avoid anything that you don’t view as totally safe or a guaranteed success. We would all like guarantees that the choices we make will have good results, but that is not often the case. “If I change my hair color, will I like it?” “If I apply for a promotion at work, will I get it?” “If I get married, can I be guaranteed I will be happy?” I think that if we did have those guarantees it would take all the mystery out of life and we would feel safe, but bored! Much of what God offers us is a mystery. Faith is a mystery simply because it is based on something we cannot always see or feel. We can see stepping out in faith as exciting or frightening; the choice is ours. I feel that my journey with God is exciting because I don’t live in the fear of making a mistake.

Someone called me one morning and said, “I am going to ask you something that is really far out and a bit crazy,” and I must admit, I thought,
Oh my, what is this all about!?
They even expressed again what a crazy idea they were about to present to me, which really made me curious. After the person told me what they wanted to ask me, I realized I was unable to grant their request, but I didn’t look down on them for asking. I was even able to suggest someone else they might ask who could perhaps grant their request. The person could have been too frightened to ask, but their boldness may yet
bear good fruit. Sometimes we have to start moving in order to figure out the direction we should take. When you step out and find that your direction is not correct, don’t give up—just take a step in another direction and don’t give up until you find the right one.

In my opinion people give up far too easily, and I would love to see people be a lot more persistent because I believe that persistence pays off. Get your life off of “hold.” Get it out of park and start driving. Passivity is the devil’s playground. He loves it when we shrink back in fear and do absolutely nothing. He loves it, but we don’t. We may think we are safe, but actually we end up miserable. God has created us for progress, movement, mystery, and having goals and reaching them. We are cheating ourselves if we don’t boldly go for all God has in mind for us.

Don’t focus on what you can’t do, what you didn’t do, and what you don’t do, but instead focus on what you can do, what you have done, and what you are doing. We absolutely must see ourselves, and our lives, in a positive way. Thinking too much about what you didn’t do in the past and how things didn’t work out will simply prevent you from trying again. Purpose to focus on one thing that you have been successful at and that will energize you to try something else. You do have potential, you are not inadequate, you are capable, and you will be robbing the rest of us if you won’t believe it!

Perhaps your experience with yourself in the past hasn’t been one of success, but I always say, “It isn’t over until it’s over, and it’s not over yet.”
Maybe you feel that life has thrown you under the bus, but you can still decide to get up and drive the bus if you want to. It is never too late for a new beginning in how you approach life. If you have been fearful in the past, or have felt inadequate, today is the best day for a change! Let this be the day that you begin to “do it afraid”!

As long as we believe we must do something to be accepted by God, we will always wonder if we are doing enough. “What do I need to do?” seems to be one of our most frequent prayer concerns. It is the same question that the crowd asked Jesus, as recorded in the Scripture verse above.

A survey of our ministry employees revealed the same concern. The number one question that they said they would like to ask Jesus was, “How can I tell when I am doing enough?” I am not surprised by the survey because that was my biggest question for many long years. I may not have formed my fear into a question all the time, but the wondering rolled around and around in my thinking.
Am I doing enough? Did I pray long enough? Am I doing enough good works to please God? Did I watch too much television yesterday, or should I have spent that time working?
I wanted to know the same thing the crowd wanted to know,
and the same thing that many of you want to know… “Is God pleased?” “Am I doing enough?” “Is God pleased with me or is He disappointed and perhaps even angry with me?”

This fear is perhaps one of the most tormenting that we experience because it never lets us rest or relax. We constantly feel we need to be doing something else and yet we often don’t know what to do. We are afraid that God is not pleased, and the fear is birthed in not truly knowing the character of God, or the plan of salvation carried out in Jesus Christ.

Let’s imagine that a man and woman have four children, and each morning the children run to their parents and say, “What can we do for you today in order to get you to accept us?” How would that make the parents feel? If I were that parent I would think, “What am I doing wrong that causes my children to believe they need to buy my love with good works?” If, on the other hand, they came to me and said, “Mom, we love you so much that we want to do something for you today; what can we do to bless you?” That would make me feel so good I would jump up and down and clap my hands! Wow! I would feel appreciated, valued, and honored, and so would any of you who are parents. I want my children to bless me because they love me, not because they are afraid of me.

The truth is that we can never do enough for God no matter how much we do! I know that sounds frustrating and defeating, but it is good news when we realize that Jesus has done all that needs to be done and nothing we can ever do will improve on the job He did. True rest comes when we can say, “I don’t have
to do anything to get God to love and accept me.” No matter how good we are, we are never good enough to meet God’s standard without Jesus. We must present to God all that Jesus is and realize that we stand before God “in Christ,” and not in ourselves. We have access to the throne of God’s grace because of the blood of Christ, and not because of anything we can ever do.

Take a moment and grasp the beautiful meaning of this Scripture. We can come before God “boldly” and “without fear” because of our faith in Him, not because we have struggled and agonized long enough to be able to say, “I have finally done enough.”

When we pray in Jesus’ name, we are presenting to the Father all that Jesus is, not what we are. That is why we pray in His name, and not in our own.

We have a desire to rest, not just physically but spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. We have a deep need and desire to enter what Scripture calls “the rest of God.” Jesus said that if we come to Him, He will give us rest for our souls (see Matthew 11:28). The apostle Paul teaches us that we can enter the rest of God if we believe (see Hebrews 4:3).

We want to rest from the agonizing fear that we have not done enough, which then leads to pushing ourselves to try to do more, and more, and more. Let us make a decision to believe God’s Word, and the moment we do, then and only then can we rest from the weariness of our own works.

Our approval has been purchased with the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We are bought and paid for and now belong to God! He is pleased if we simply believe in what Jesus did for us!

Jesus answered the crowd with the words recorded above and His answer still applies to us who have the same question they did. You can relax because the requirements of God have all been met in Jesus.

I know that it sounds too good to be true, and you may be afraid to believe that you no longer need to be afraid that you’re not doing enough, but I promise you that it is true!

There are things that God wants us to do. He has called us to bear good fruit, and the apostle John tells us that God is glorified when we bear much, abundant fruit (see John 15:8). But our motive for doing the work is what God is truly interested in. If our motive (the reason why we are doing the work) is not according to the will of God, then the work is rejected as a counterfeit and we lose all the reward connected to the deed (see 1 Corinthians 3:13–15).

Our works must be done out of faith and not out of fear. They must be done to give something to God, not to get something from Him. This would be an excellent time to stop and ask yourself why you are doing the various things you do. I love doing what I call “motive checks.” It is very easy for us to deceive ourselves about our motives, so it is good to take the time occasionally to ask God to show you anything that you might be doing for a wrong reason.

We should not do what we do in order to gain approval from God, but we should do these things because we love Him. We must not do good works to be seen of men, or to be applauded, admired, or well thought of. In order for a work to be pure it must meet the following qualifications.

1. Work done for God must be done purely because we love Him.
   
2. Work done for God must be done in obedience to Him and His Word.
   
3. Work done for God must be done by faith, leaning entirely on Him and trusting in Him for the success of the work.
   
4. Work done for God must be done to glorify Him.
   
5. Work done for God should not be done for acknowledgment, admiration, or applause by people.
   

God’s eyes roam around the earth searching for someone whose heart is pure before Him (see 2 Chronicles 16:9). A pure heart is much more important to the Lord than a perfect record of good works. Although it isn’t possible to have perfection in all of our behavior, it is totally possible to have a perfect heart toward God. A person with a perfect heart would be someone who deeply desires to please God in all things, and is always open to growth and change that is motivated and led by the Holy Spirit.

In Matthew 5:48 we are admonished “be perfect,” but the meaning of the phrase is to grow into complete maturity in godliness in mind and character. Spiritually, I am growing all the time, but I have not arrived at perfection yet, and neither has any other human for that matter. The apostle Paul stated that he pressed toward the mark of perfection, but that he had not arrived (see Philippians 3:11–13).

Don’t live in the fear that you have not done enough and that God is angry with you, or that the door to His presence is closed to you. I can assure you that if you truly believe in Jesus and the work He did on your behalf, you are doing enough.

As mentioned previously, it is definitely God’s desire that we do good works. James said that faith without works is dead, and I totally agree, but works that are done without faith are also dead. Have true faith in God and His promises first and then the works will follow, but they will be pure works done from a pure heart. It is quite impossible to have a genuine relationship with God
through Christ and not deeply desire to please God. Once we realize what Jesus has done for us, we will love Him so much that doing things for Him and His glory becomes our motivation for living.

Relax and look to the work Jesus did on your behalf, and always remember that the work you do does not buy your acceptance with God. Acceptance has already been purchased with the blood of Christ. The work we do is our way of saying “Thank You” to our amazing God, who loves us so much He sent His only Son to redeem us from our sin and has seated us in heavenly places with Christ.