Rather than be afraid, we should be confident that we can trust God with anything.   ~~~   Is God calling you to step out of the boat? What are you afraid of? If you recall the story of Peter stepping out of the boat and walking on water, it started by him asking Jesus, “Lord, if it’s you, tell me to come to you on the water.” He put it out there. He took the risk of asking Jesus to call him to step out. So what happens? Jesus said, “come”. He stepped out of the boat. It was going great! He was water walking! Then, he took his eyes off of Jesus and looked around. He saw the waves. He saw the deep water. Then what happened right before he began to sink? Matthew 14:30-31 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” Did you catch it? The thing that derailed him from his water walking experience with Jesus, was fear. Maybe you can relate. You’ve been water walking with Jesus full of faith and trust and then BAM, fear. But Jesus what if THIS… I’m just afraid that… Did you see the giants I’m facing? I’m afraid I’m not good enough… I can’t see how this will work out… Fear takes root when we believe the lie that God can’t handle what we are facing and the deeper root lie is that God can not be trusted. Fear IS a liar. Fear says, ‘you can’t walk on water’ and we buy into it even when we are literally walking on water with Jesus in our gaze. The thing is we love to take things into our own hands. We do our own ‘water walking’ risk management in a way, looking at all the possible ‘worst case scenarios’ of what COULD happen all for the sake of trying to control the outcome. Carefully weighing probabilities and seeking sound wisdom and council IS a good thing, but if you move forward with a root of fear in anything in life, you’re not going to get as far as you would without it! What fear is holding you back? I read an article recently that stepped on my toes a bit. It basically said to stop asking the question, ‘what’s the worst that could happen?’ Thinking like that may move us forward, but in our mind we’ve already tried to control the outcome by managing our expectations all for the sake of accepting the probability that something bad WILL happen or that something GOOD will not! We limit what God wants to do in and through us as we attempt to manage our own outcomes. I’ve been guilty. Do you do that? What lie are you believing that has led you to be afraid? Ask God to forgive you and lay it as His feet. Trust Him with all the lies you’ve been believing. Trust Him with every single part of your life, even the scary parts you try to manage. The phrase ‘fear not’ is in the Bible 365 times, that’s enough for every single day. Dig into more of what God has to say about fear if you struggle in this area. You’ll find so many scriptures to encourage you in choosing faith over fear. One of my favorite scripture verses is one I had my girls learn when they were little. Psalm 56:3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. It’s so simple. That’s why I love it. I trust in the Lord because I stand in awe of who He is and His neverending love for me. That’s the truth. When I stand in that kind of love, I can say with confidence each new day, “what’s the BEST that could happen”? Let’s get out of the boat. I’m Lori Cline.