And so – we write for five minutes, our words tumbling out – no editing, no polishing – just flat out on a one word prompt! We gather all our beautiful thoughts here in our Five Minute Friday community and then love on each other as only we can do! Click here to learn all about it.
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FEAR
GO…
As I have studied bravery this year and looked at it from every angle possible, the one constant that pops up right in the middle is fear. You are probably wondering how that is possible since fear would be the opposite of bravery, but when digging deep into what it means to be brave, you must first face your fears.
Fear steals bravery
Fear threatens to break down all you are building up
Fear sneaks in when you least expect it
Fear is the absence of God as your presence
As I dug into bravery through a church wide study and as the next logical step in my life, I have learned so much about myself.
Until you take the time to face your fears and replace them with faith, your brave is nothing but a word that you say in conversation instead of a word that is your action. We are brave children of God because He chose us to be and lovingly provides us with all we need to take that step out of the boat straight into His arms.
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But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. Matthew 14:27-29
Let us all face our fears like Peter and keep our eyes focused on Jesus as we take that first step out of the boat.
In grace and peace,
Mary
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Also linking with Susan #DanceWithJesus
Yes indeed Mary. The absence of God causes me great fear. Thank you for joining the dance so faithfully your words are beautiful and they sure matter. Susan
You are a sweet encourager whose heart shines for Jesus and I love joining #DanceWithJesus each week. Let’s pray for all that we choose God over fear and act bravely for Him.
Hi Mary! I am very intrigued by the relationship between fear and bravery. I really enjoyed your post today (well, I read it today anyway!). I think fear can be such a powerful motivator, but the opposite is true too. It can keep me cowering in the corner too.
I hope I’ll continue to choose to be brave. I think Jesus wants that boat empty…He wants us all to get out!
Blessings,
Ceil
God calls us to a brave “yes” in our lives but I don’t think it means that we never have any fear again. It is through our fear that we are able to step out with God’s strength and embrace the brave that He has for each of us. I love seeing you here today Ceil and I have missed you. I look forward to seeing you more and to read some of your beautiful writing. Blessings friend!
I think God knows we will be a fearful people as He mentioned 365 times in the Bible that we should not be afraid. Like every day He reminds us not to be afraid. 🙂
God does remind us to not be afraid but is so willing to strengthen us to pursue the brave that He has chosen for us. I pray we all choose brave because God will be right there to give us all we need for the journey. Blessings to you!
Love this! Love this! Love this! I appreciate your words on bravery. You helped us focus on the positive and not the negative. The scripture you chose is perfect! Thank you, Mary, for your continued encouragement and inspiration. Bless you!
Your sweet words bless me Julie and I always love when you pop in here to visit. I really feel that bravery is just a word that we say until we face the fears that cause us to shy away from it. I would much rather always turn to the positive in all things if I could. I appreciate you and your blogging friendship. Blessings my friend!
You’re right, Mary. Brave is just a word until we step past it anad take action to confront our fears head on and do things anyway! I loved the “I am brave when…” list you had in the box. Preach it, sister!
Thank you sweet Betsy! I agree that brave is just a word until we put it into action and that requires that we move past our fears. I am glad you liked my list. Trust me I am preaching to myself by writing it down. Hope your weekend has been blessed!
Keeping my eyes set on Him! Love you, dear friend. xoxo
I am with you on focusing on God because He is the one who will keep our heads above the water. Hope you have a blessed weekend. Hugs!
The thing that always gets me about facing my fears is that whatever I’m afraid of usually isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be! Isn’t it silly how we build things up in our minds? And yet I, at least, haven’t yet been able to stop that habit.
Thanks for reminding me to focus on Him and seek His presence. You’re right; fear is found in the absence of Him. He never leaves, but it takes me only a nanosecond to focus on something else and thus forget Him.
I am guilty of that quick look away and you are exactly right to say that fear is ready to pounce in those situations. I believe that fear is the absence of the presence of God and keeping our eyes set on Jesus will lead us to brave every time. Blessings for a beautiful weekend!
Living through my worst fear helped me understand God’s perfect presence that is greater than my fear. A hard lesson learned by His grace. Enjoy a blessing-filled weekend!
My heart skipped a beat when you mentioned living through your worst fear, but I am blessed that the grace of God pulled you through this fear. God’s perfect presence erases all fear and replaces it with His endless grace. Thank you for stopping by! Praying your weekend is blessed too!
I really like this. Sometimes we understand an idea so much better if we study its opposite. Fear and bravery is a perfect example of this. Bravery feels like such an abstract idea to me at times, but I can remember fear and when I remember it, I can see what its opposite would be.
Thank you Amy! I feel that you can’t have bravery without fear and vice versa. Since I had been learning so much about bravery, tackling fear was logical because I didn’t come to this place of bravery without digging into my fears. Your words encourage me and I am thankful that you stopped by today. Blessings!
Fear is what ultimately drove me to the Lord. It began as a little girl and culminated when a friend of a friend invited me to do a Bible study and asked me if there was anything I struggled with. I told her fear. She found a Bible study about fear and it was the passage in Matthew that you shared that was pivotal in my choosing to Trust in the Lord. I wanted to be set free as only Jesus could do.
Fear ultimately was a blessing in my life.
I enjoyed your insights on what bravery really is.
Thanks so much for sharing!
So glad you are here today Karen! I have found that in order to get to bravery we must work through fear. This can be very overwhelming and consuming but in the process of digging deep into our struggles, we find that Jesus was there the whole time ready to pull us toward Him. It is a beautiful thing that is continuing to evolve for me and I hope it is for you as well. Hoping you have a blessed weekend.
As I sit with this post this morning, Mary, it prompts this verse to rise … ‘perfect love casts out fear.’
And all I can do is thank God for this great mercy He is and He gives.
May His love more and more define us. And may that fear shrink into nothing.
Thank you for the reminder of that verse. Perfect love does cast out fear and when love fills us we don’t have room for fear. I am praying with you that love conquers all fear and we may walk bravely together to all that God has called us. Blessed by your words and presence. Love and hugs and have a beautiful weekend.
Fear holds us back. As it is written in the scriptures, God is with us. His presence is there with us. Just the way Peter looked on to the Lord Jesus when his fears were drowning him, let us also look unto the lord to lift us out of the fear that drown us.
God Bless Mary an do have a fantastic weekend ahead.
Fear can be overwhelming and consuming, but when we seek Jesus and focus on Him we have the strength to move beyond the fear. May we all look to the Lord to lift us out of fear and to give us the strength to keep our focus on Him. Blessings my friend!
The first rule of what’s now called enhanced interrogation is this – everyone breaks, and the subject who dies before talking merely shows the ineptitude of the interrogator.
That’s terribly harsh, but it’s true. Everyone has a physical limit.
The same is true of fear – Peter overcame his to step out of the boat, but at the next hurdle, when Jesus was arrested, his spirit quailed, and He denied Jesus three times.
And Jesus loved him anyway, and Peter was still the rock upon which His church would be built.
It isn’t how much fear we have, or how much faith. What matters is knowing that we’re loved, without reservation.
Yes to these words, Andrew. Peter did overcome his initial fear and then two steps into his journey he took his eyes off Jesus and immediately began to sink. The story points out for me the weakness we have as humans. We can overcome fear temporarily but the world swoops in and tries to build back into our fears if we let it. I believe that knowing we are loved is the ultimate because it the connection of ourselves to someone else that keeps us going. Thank you for being here.
Mary, your words are really speaking to my heart tonight. Brave is my oneword365 and I love the reminders you point out here.
It’s interesting how you and others are picking up on the word “brave” even though the post is supposed to be about fear. I realize that what I did was turn it around to make it positive and I would much rather turn fear around and make it brave then the other way. Thank you for being here! I appreciate you and your encouragement.
I love this: “Fear is the absence of God as your presence” That’s perfect. Your words are a blessing, friend. Thanks for being brave to share them in His name. 🙂
Thank you Karen! I love how you just encouraged me to be brave in my words and we are blessed in this community to share in His name. I can’t think of anything better right now! Thankful that we are in community together.
“Fear is the absence of God as your presence.” Oh how I needed to hear those words! Especially since presence is my 2015 OneWord. This was an awesome reminder to me that I need not be afraid when I am in His presence…doing what He’s called me to do…thanks for that!! xoxo
Truly this post was God-breathed tonight because I had no idea where it would lead. I needed the same reminder and do often as I step out of the boat into my “what’s next”. Love you and blessed to call you friend!