Fear One Way, Faith the Other…

Look both ways before you cross the road.

That’s what my mother taught me. Now days, I often see fear one way and faith the other.

When I have a big decision, I often have the feeling I am about to step out into traffic on a busy interstate. I’m just waiting for the proverbial bus that is going to mow me down. Failure! BAM! That is fear.

I also have the choice of faith. Believing for the best. I have free will to choose where to place my heart. Faith is trusting in the Lord. Fear and faith cannot occupy the same space in my heart at the same time. The following scripture encourages me to choose faith, to realize that I am blessed no matter what happens.

And blessed is he who trusts in the Lord. Proverbs 16:20

I must believe I am going to be blessed simply by the fact that I am trusting in the Lord, and not because of the quality of my decision making. I do believe you can influence the outcome through faith. But I must let events play out over time to make the ultimate assessment of whether I was blessed or not. I can say that after 25+ years trusting the Lord, I have never come up short. But the paths I have ended up walking have been very different and very rough at times. But the rough spots always bring about the character transformation that is foundational to receiving the blessings mentioned in Proverbs 16:20. It is the transformed character that brings about true happiness we all seek. That is the true blessing.