Is Fear Stopping Your Progress?

Have you ever met someone who appears to have the “cookie cutter” lifestyle? Or, if they don’t appear that way; they strive extremely hard to paint the perfect little picture of life. No worries, no struggles, problem- free, and enjoying every minute of life. Reality is, I don’t know if such a person exists. And chances are, you either have been that person or might very well be letting this unreachable goal suck the life out of you right now. We have all at some point in our life bought into this lie from the enemy that trials, struggles, temptation, and problems of any sort are abnormal and definitely should NOT be mentioned or confessed. Therefore, since we have allowed these lies to penetrate into our minds, we have given Satan the authority to mobilize our day to day life by what people think and know about us. James 5:16 tells us to confess our sins to one another, so that we may be healed. This scripture doesn’t say that we “might” be healed, but Jesus promises us that through confessing our sins to Him and to others we will be healed from the burdens and baggage that have been weighing us down for so long. However, very few us rarely experience such healing, because we spend more of our time avoiding the possibility of being rejected than we do building relationships that are firm, loving, and unconditional. Truth is, we all have things in our life that need to be dealt with; but we’re too afraid of what someone might think about us if we actually confessed that we need prayer.

What we have to remember is that not one of us has it all together. There is something going on inside everyone single of us, and God surrounds us with the very people He has put in our lives to encourage and pray for us. Romans tells us that we ALL have fallen short of the glory of God. And praise God that as scripture repeatedly tells us, He is much more interested in our relationship with Him rather than our performance for Him. Therefore, if we will begin to ask God to grant us the amount of faith to overcome this fear that is stopping the progress of developing fruitful relationships with people and direct intimacy with God; we will not only begin to walk in healing, but we really will obtain the pure joy that James 1 mentions as we persevere through the trials and tribulations that we as Christians WILL face (because we share in His suffering). We were not created to live life alone. Jesus came so that we would have abundant life (John 10:10). But to receive the fullness of this abundance, we must give abundant life ourselves.

So, instead of continuing to let fear build these towers-some walls in your relationships by refusing to let people fellowship with you in the good times and bad times, begin to build authentic, confident relationships that scripture calls us to walk in by encouraging, confessing, building up, loving, and praying.