I love to watch my children when they are little , they have an endless belief in their abilities , they think they can do anything, they will try anything , we adults are often standing by watching at the ready to sound the alarm to stop them in their next wild endeavour.
My Liam was by far the most adventurous of my children, we were always coming to the rescue in a situation that often he was completely unaware that there was a problem.
I remember when he was 6 years old, we were on a family holiday at the Blue mountains in New South Wales, Liam had run ahead on the walking track with his older brother who was 11, he was only 1 minute ahead of us, as we turned a corner on the path both of our hearts skipped a beat.... there was Liam , he had crawled under the barrier and onto the top of a massive Boulder and way sitting on top proudly waving his hands "look at me, look at me!!!! " . The problem was that there was a drop of thousands of meters below him. We got him back in, severely scolded him, Mike and I had a packet of Valium each and we all went on our way...
Adults with a healthy fear for their own safety would never do such a ting, because we have learnt over time boundaries of safety, we have learnt to protect ourselves rather than relying on an adult to do that for us.
Somewhere a long the line however we begin to put our own brakes on ourselves , and the pity is that all too often we are just too careful to step out, or we lose that child like faith, that belief system in our own abilities, too often we fail to jump in where God is asking us to go because we are not willing to give him the control. We fail to trust that if our father in Heaven is asking something of us, there is no way that he would put us in a situation that would cause us harm. We become so good at our own self preservation that we lose faith in ourselves.
Why do we so often think in the solitude of our minds" I would love to do that , but oh thats silly, that is only for other people"
what stops us from achieving our dreams? At what point do we stop believing in ourselves?
I believe that the problem is that we get confused with the difference between not doing something because it is unsafe or unwise and not going ahead with something because we have formed an opinion of our capabilities that is incorrect, based on people and situations in our lives that have caused us to doubt ourselves .We would go alot further for God in our lives if we feared him more than we fear personal failure. Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”
God wants so much more for us than we want for ourselves. We look at the Pastor and think , "I cant do that" ,we are asked to present communion and say no because we think people will judge us and think we are stupid, we look at the mission field and think "That is not for me" , we look at street evangelist and think" oh I might get hurt" , we look at the kids ministry and think " Kids don't like me". So many things that God needs us to do for him and so many excuses as to why we cant. Luke 1:37 For nothing is impossible with God."
Mark 10:15 I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
If God has sown a seed in your mind to do something don't just laugh at the mere suggestion of it, pray about it, explore the avenues, ask God about it, ask your peers about it, and then perhaps; step out with child like faith in yourself and do it. 1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
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