Love or Fear?

Last month, I purposed in my heart to say “yes” to love and “no to fear” in the new year. In any decision, I must figure out who is doing the talking, love or fear? And I’ve chosen love. Saying yes is scary for me, especially to new things. What if I fail? What if it’s hard? What if I’m not good at it? What if I don’t enjoy it? But saying “no” keeps me in my comfort zone. Rarely any growth happens there. While there’s much wisdom in saying no due to knowing your limits, schedule, and priorities, I mostly said “no” because of the “unknowns” I mentioned above. I used to let fear win and I used “no” as an excuse to avoid failure, to insure safety, and in doing so I missed out on growth.

But just in the past two months of letting love be the courageous spark within me to say yes to the hard thing, the new thing, the challenging thing, I’ve been blown away by how much I’m learning, how much God is giving, and how many more opportunities to choose “yes” have come as I’ve faithfully chosen love over fear.

I’m not saying to fill our schedules, but check the motives for why or why not we do something. Maybe it’s making the hard phone call instead of putting it off until tomorrow. Or applying for that job you’d probably thrive in, but you’re out of your mind intimidated by the process. Maybe it’s continuing the degree when it’d be easier to quit.  Or sharing with your spouse an area in your life you need to work on when it’d be less humbling to work on it quietly on your own. What has fear been keeping you from lately? Or what has it been making you do? I wonder what might change if we determined to replace fear with love? I wonder how we might change? I know it’s changing me.

2 Timothy 1:7 “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.”