Becoming Fearless... Part III: Freedom -- it's not about me

All summer at camp, God spoke to me through the verse Galatians 5:13

“You, my brothers, were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.”

I used to fear that God must not be calling me to be a teacher because “I’m not that good at it”.  Ha!  Was I limiting God or what?  So if I only do the things “I’m already good or secure at” doing, how will I continue to grow and rely on God’s strength?  No, He wants me to grow and learn how to teach, how to be a more confident leader and person, how to empower others through my gifts.  Instead of expecting God only to lead me in ways in which I felt completely prepared and knew exactly what to expect, I accept where He is calling me and claim the promise that He will give me everything I need to succeed.  “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness.” – 2 Peter 1:3  And I will grow by God’s teaching and learn more how to be the person He created me to be, instead of complacently staying nervously where I am currently.  He wants to take me farther!  Yay, Lord!  I am so thankful that God does not “call the equipped”, but He “equips the called”!  Listen up, seek Him, and He will lead you, work through you, and Never fail you!  :)  This connects back to my personal theme verse from the previous summer at camp, 2 Corinthians 12:9 – “ ‘My Grace is sufficient for you, for My Power is made perfect in your weakness…’”

Plus, He wants us to daily see our need for Him – that’s why He calls us through our weaker areas sometimes too – like Moses himself, who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, didn’t even like speaking in front of large groups --- and see how powerfully God used Him!  (Book of Exodus)

¹¹ But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”  – Exodus 3:11

¹² But Moses said to the Lord, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?” – Exodus 6:12

(or the NLT version says):  ¹² “But Lord!” Moses objected. “My own people won’t listen to me anymore. How can I expect Pharaoh to listen? I’m such a

clumsy speaker!”

(((Whoa, you know what’s really cool?  When I was googling verses about Moses right

now to find them, I came across this awesome devotional – http://www.oneplace.com/devotionals/niv-devotions-for-men/niv-devotions-for-men-week-of-oct-2-11657589.html – and God used this finding to encourage me a lot that this blog I’m writing is from Him and not just from me, because this online Bible Study is giving the same message as I am!  Here are a couple quick excerpts from it – it’s so cool!  Praise God for His Truth that is unchanging and for allowing me to understand it! –)))

“Moses didn’t realize that the success of his mission didn’t depend on his skills; it depended on his faithfulness. God could have sent anyone to deliver the message to Pharaoh—even one of Moses’ sheep. But God picked Moses instead. And he gave Moses the strength and skills he needed to complete the assignment.

That’s important to remember when it comes to the things God calls us to do. Just as it was for Moses, it’s easy for us to reason and argue with God. “But God, I don’t have the skills to be a leader at church.” Or, “God, why don’t you send someone else? No one will listen to what I have to say.”

Yet what we see as our own weaknesses shouldn’t stop us from carrying out our God-given assignments, because with our marching orders come God’s strength and assistance. Remember, the success of our mission doesn’t depend on our skills. It depends on our faithfulness.

To Take Away

• What can you do to increase your trust in God’s strength?

• When have you stepped out in faith even though you didn’t feel prepared for an assignment from God?

• Do you feel God leading you to do something for which you feel you’re not qualified? Pray about it today and ask for God’s empowerment and courage in your life.”

We don’t live by the law but by grace.

God’s call in comparison to our abilities doesn’t always make perfect sense to us.

“You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.  But by faith, we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision [following specific Old Testament law rituals] has any value.  The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” – Galatians 5:4-6

But when we stop fearing if our own abilities are enough, (stop trying to be justified by perfectly following the rules of doing everything perfectly right – like verse 4), we can go for it.  Jump in.  Try our best.  Make mistakes.  Learn.  Have fun.  Embrace who we truly, deeply are and that is who God wants us to be!  And when we surrender ourselves so we can rely completely on God to make a difference, life really starts to happen.  Our actions become fulfilling.  We don’t hold back because we’re afraid, but we open up and give of ourselves, even vulnerably sometimes when we aren’t 100% assured in our great abilities or preparedness, but we show the world the best we’ve got!...and God makes things happen.  Like in Moses’ example, I really saw at camp among the counselors that it was more about how surrendered to God a person was than how “spiritual” or “knowledge-filled” he or she was.  God will work through anyone who lets Him!  He does what He wills, and all that He does is good!  We just have to be ourselves and trust Him, and He will use us to do His work in the world.

Don’t let your own fear or a lack of trust in yourself or in God keep you from experiencing your dreams and making a difference in the ways God has specific gifted you, though you may or may not know it yet!

I’m so thankful that it’s about God’s plan and not about me and my “perfect strength” and “perfect abilities”, because I would mess up.  I still will.

But God’s perfect purposes will endure, and I can give it all to Him instead of putting it all on me to do everything right.  That takes the pressure off!  I’m not in charge – all I have to do is obey and do what God appoints me to, and He will lead me and lead through me!  Even when I don’t always see the good results at the time.  I’m not saying that I’ll be a perfect teacher if I let God lead, but I will say that it frees me to be myself without fear and trusting that He will bring good through it somehow, in His time and place, and teach me a ton.  He is good and He wants us to trust Him fully and let Him work through us.  Praise God that He cares about each of us so much!  That we can play a part in His work to save people, and encourage them, and help more and more people to know Him and join in His eternal Kingdom forever!!

We are free.

Bask in that truth for second… take it in.

Because of what Christ did for us, taking our guilt and chains of sin away on the cross, defeating death when He rose again, … we don’t have to live afraid.

We don’t have to measure our every step to try to earn our own worthiness.  Pshh!  That will never work anyway.  Take a leap of faith!  Because we are freed, we can walk confidently through life.  Nothing anyone says or does can take away our security in Christ, so why not give of yourself to serve others and stand up confidently for what you believe?  Why not show a bit of your heart to people instead of only being a “tough guy who’s got it all together”?  I certainly don’t have it all together, but I believe firmly that we aren’t slaves to sin anymore, and we don’t have to struggle to become free… rather, we are free to struggle. *  Because when we fall down, God is right there to pick us up!  We all need a Savior, but we’ve already got one.  So live life fully!  Let God take you to the amazing heights He has planned for you and don’t hold back.  He’s got ya.  ;)

* Yes, I borrowed that from Tenth Avenue North’s new “Struggle” album --- but it’s sooo amazing how the things God taught me throughout the past year relate exactly to the messages in their new CD.  Yea God!

This fall at my field experience, I started out being self-conscious about my teaching abilities and if the kids would get anything out of it… and if they would like me… but through practice, God’s strength, and encouragement from those around me, I grew to be myself and let the music happen… let God teach through me and not worry if I’d mess up, but just be(!) and it was so much fun!  I’m still learning a lot and I have much farther to grow, but it became so fun and meaningful and way better to relate to the kids too.  Plus I always feel overwhelming joy and peace of God’s Presence when I go out of my comfort zone in faith to do something.  :)  which is the best!  AND it’s starting to transfer to my everyday life too – at my job back home in retail, I look shoppers in the eye and don’t cave whenever I don’t know something perfectly.  I introduce myself to other new employees and embrace my own strengths and weaknesses (e.g. I’ve worked there since 2008!  But I haven’t worked there this year since last January, so I don’t know where current things are!...haha).  And see, if I had given up and decided I couldn’t be a teacher because I wasn’t a good-enough, confident-enough leader, I wouldn’t have grown in these human qualities in my day-to-day life either.  God had a plan.  I love Him!

(I started this post over Thanksgiving break and added a lot to it tonight -- sorry if it's repetitive or a bit scatter-brained -- I hope God speaks to you through it, and the message rings clear!  God bless you!)