“Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the Lord your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you (Deuteronomy 31:6).” Or from the Message translation—“Be strong. Take courage. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t give them a second thought because God, your God, is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you.”

Fear is a crazy thing, isn’t it? It can be very debilitating to anyone of us. I think fear often gets in the way of trying new things or even living our lives. Because we don’t know what the outcome will be, we let fear take over but the truth is that God is with us in the midst of those fears. But even in the midst of God’s promise to walk with us, fear still sometimes takes over. A friend recently mentioned the possibility of a change for their family and this friend also mentioned that fear was taking hold. If they take this change on wonderful things could happen, but yet fear takes such a deep hold that we are afraid to go for it! Several other friends are battling cancer and in the midst of that struggle, they are being prayed for and held up by so many yet I know that all of them have had to face their own fears head on.

We need to learn to let that fear go which I realize is is so much easier said than done! But children can be such great examples of this. I think of parents who tell of their children who arent afraid to try anything! Hmmm….maybe we could learn something from them. This got me thinking about my own life. When I have let fear go, amazing things have happened. If I hadnt interviewed at SuperAwesomeBibleCamp, I wouldn’t have worked there for seven summers and never would have ended up at seminary. If I hadn’t gone to tour Wartburg Seminary, I never would have ended up there and made one of the most blessed decisions of my life. If I… If I…If I……

Fear likes to take a hold of all of us but I believe, we must take these words from the Old Testament to heart! God promises that he will never leave us or forsake us. Do not be afraid he says! So perhaps we need to let fear know whose boss and trust in our a God; a God who loves us more than we ever could imagine!