Are your "What If's" stopping God???

Failure combined with fear is a huge obstacle in adoption. The "What If's" are a consistent question that rolls around in your brain, reconstituting themselves, always changing the phrase to meet the next challenge. The problem with the "what if's" is that it never really becomes satisfied -- there's always another "what if" at every turn in the road. But "what if" your "what if's" are stopping God from doing what He wants to do in your life? I'll be honest about this - the more I understand, the more I see that "what if" is nothing more than fear. Fear of failure to not have it come out... so wonderfully perfect... so everyone can see our perfection. We want a life with No hurts.... no major problem... no pain... no loss... no sacrifice...and the result is... no death to self.

Why do we do that? Why do we live as though failure is something we must avoid at all costs? Who told us that?

When my children were just learning to walk, they fell alot - but they would get back up on their feet and try again. If they stopped trying they would still be crawling. It was created in our innate nature to try, try and try again. We become stronger and more confident each time. Yet as adults we allow fear to dictate our decisions; we stop trying the moment we fail, because "God's just not into failure". Oh really?? The truth is that it will go well with us even in our failures - why we can't marry the two ... I don't really know?! God is in our failures and uses them to His Glory, not ours! He takes us in our imperfections and shines His Glory through us. We need to learn to trust in Him, not our flesh and we can't do that unless we fall! Yep... that's right, fall...fall right on our little face in the dirt. That's the greatest way Jesus becomes our strength. He pulls us up, dusts off our dirty britches, gives us a sword and a kiss and sends us off again, running :)

We have got to grab hold of Him; and realize it's not us doing it, it's Him. When we are weak - He is strong. My 100-year-old dictionary says 'weak' means: "to yield, fail, give way, recede or be soft." The world judges by success; God judges us by our fruit, and He will prune that which is death to us. When we are doing something new, especially when we're stepping out of our comfort zone, failure is pretty much a given, but it doesn't have to stop there. We will make mistakes -- maybe even big ones -- then there will be those folks who will show us a better way, and we'll kick ourselves for not thinking of it first. Maybe I don't know best?? -- maybe they do --and we begin to trust others more than ourselves; after all, they seem more sucessful, in our eyes at least. By measuring ourselves with the rod of failure, rather than fruit, we allow man to be our judge, which give fear an access point in which to torment us. We lose out when we believe that God only speaks better to someone else. We begin to compare ourselves with others, (let the comparsion game began!) believing that they are hearing God, and obviously (we think) we're not.

Who's whispering this stuff in our ears? It's not God, it's the accuser - the one who hates God and hates us. The one who wants to shut you down and make you weak. That's the one who wants to plant seeds of fear in your heart and mine. Oh, the stories I could tell you about my failure, and how fear loves to grab hold of me, reminding me of my mistakes at ever opportunity I give it. I cast down that wicked thing from my mind and cling to the feet of my Lord. I remind myself that even in my "failure" God will prevail and become great in me. I do not want to stop God from expanding in my life because I allowed fear of failure, which came from some man-made requirement in the first place, to rule.

What is God's requirement? I love what Micah says in chapter 6:6 -- With what shall I come before the Lord - shall I come with burnt offerings? maybe a thousand rams? or ten thousand rivers of oil? how about giving my first born for my transgressions(ouch!), the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? but wait... he says I have shown you what is good: the Lord requires of you to do justice - to love kindness - to walk humbly with our God. It is sound wisdom to fear the name of God - did I hear "fear failure" No, I did not! I heard to "fear God": a "Holy Awe, Reverence of God, Worship of God" kinda fear.

So I say 'Fail, and Fail good', stomping on fear with all your might until all that squeezes out of your little body is Jesus. Let Him work in you His life-giving blood - So baby, get up off that floor, grab hold of your Papa's hand and walk in the renewed Hope of His Glory!