A Life Lived in Fear...

Wow! It's been ages since I have posted something on by Blog... A while back I watched the movie "Australia", I cant remember much of the movie but what I do remember is the motto of the film company that produced the movie, it was “A life lived in fear is a life half-lived.” It made quite an impact on me...

There is a lot of truth in that quote, many things hold us back from realising our dreams in life such as finances, the season of life you are in, practical limitations, etc. But I feel that one of the 'biggies' that holds us back is fear. It seems it doesn't take much for people to live in fear these days. The media thrives on bad news that breeds fear in people... increasing levels of crime, unemployment and so much more adds to the dilemma.

 Coming back to the motto; “A life lived in fear is a life half-lived”, fear will get in the way and stop us pursuing new ventures in our lives. Take for example the spies that had to check out the promised land (Numbers 13 & 14) they came back saying "no can do!", they saw all that God promised would be there but they allowed their fear to give them a whole bunch of reasons why they could not take the land as God promised they could. Only Joshua and Caleb stayed positive... they saw everything the others saw, the fortified cities and the 'giants' however they did not feel like 'grasshoppers' like the others did and their response in Numbers 14:5 was “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. 8 If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. 9 Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.”

 If we allow fear to rule our lives we will live only half a life, we will miss out on many opportunities God has in store for us. How do we deal with the fears we have? I don't want to give some quick answers here but one way of dealing with them is to write them down, then speak with someone you feel safe with and together work out what of the fears are rational fears and which are irrational... the irrational ones are easier to deal with once they are out in the open because they look a lot smaller once we expose them than they do in our minds. The rational fears can be worked on by working out what triggers them and why they seem to block our progress in life (example: fearing the future; look back over your life and see how God brought you through difficult times when at the time you thought there would be no tomorrow).

I have learnt (I have faced many fears in my life), and continue to learn, the only way to tackle your fears is to face them head-on. It's not always easy but the alternative is worse. Thanks for reading my ramblings on this, if anything, I hope it inspires you to draw a line in the sand, face your fears and live more than just half a life.