An integral part of the faith process is being strong against adversity!
Faith is moving against your fears and worries. God says, “If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength!” (Proverbs 24:10). When we don’t turn our doubts over to God, we will fan those embers and they will burn emotional and physical holes through our souls. When we worry and fret so much that we forfeit all hope for living a quiet and purposeful life of joy and balance.
God says “no!” to our futile attempts to hang onto the concerns that will drag us down, compromising not only our peace but our ability to lead others: “Anxiety weighs down the heart” (Proverbs 12:25).
In other words, worry robs us of joy and effectiveness.
God commands us not to worry about anything. Not one thing. I look at it as an “even if and even though” phenomenon. God tells us to trust him and turn over our fears and worries even if our world may be falling apart:
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea” (Psalm 46:1-2).
God also says we should go to him with our doubts even though it appears there is no hope:
“Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
When fear and worry settle in for a very long stay, the most common reaction is to analyze the facts. Studying them makes us feel better, and there is nothing wrong with doing that. The problem is that we don’t give them over to God first. We’re back to being in charge again and trying to make decisions as if we are buying the newest smart phone.
That approach excludes God. We are saying to him, in effect, “I don’t need the power you have available for me. I’ll lead myself through the battlefields of the worry war, because I have confidence in me.”
God doesn’t want us to give up in the face of persistent and seemingly never-ending challenges. In fact, he wants us to buckle down even harder when circumstances challenge us over and over and over again.
By yielding ourselves to God and following his direction through his Word, we become the very best we can be in him. Why? Because he is expressed through us.
