Fear vs Faith - who's winning?

Last week I wrote about how we often neglect to consult with God when we have decisions to make, and how that can lead to wrong choices and disobedience to God.  This week I'm thinking about a related problem, the struggle between fear and faith.  

In Numbers 13 the Israelites were on the  borders of Canaan, the promised land.  Twelve spies went to check things out, and when they returned the problems began.  Everyone agreed that the land was just as God promised, a land of milk and honey.  The disagreement was over whether or not they could defeat the well trained and well armed people who already inhabited the land. Two said yes, God will go before us and do what He promised.  Ten said no, we can't possibly defeat those giants.  The fear they caused among the people resulted in everyone wandering around in the desert until they died, every adult but the two faithful spies, Joshua and Caleb.

It's easy to be hard on those faithless people of Israel. Surely they could see that the God who took them from Egypt, parted the Red Sea, and provided food and water in the desert could help them defeat the Canaanites.  Surely after all this time they should have learned to trust God!  Right?

Confession time.  I have seen God perform amazing miracles in my life, but when He confronts me with a plan that requires trust, demands a step of faith, it's still an agonizing decision.  Can I really trust God in this situation?  

The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God.  It's really important to Him that we trust Him.  He wants us to obey with confidence, certain that He will enable us to do whatever He asks of us.  Stepping out in faith is an amazing experience, because that's when we really see the hand of God at work. If we only do what we can do on our own, there is no need for God and we will miss out on the miraculous things He wants to do.  

That doesn't mean doing whatever crazy thing enters our heads and expecting God to swoop in and rescue us. I'm not saying that. When Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and dared him to jump off, Jesus refused. He wasn't afraid for whether or not God could rescue him.  He just knew this wasn't what God wanted.  The two things have to go hand in hand; hearing the command or call of God and being willing then to follow in faith.

Those two principles are extremely important for us as individual believers, and for churches, such as The Mission.  First, we must not be content to settle for what is within the bounds of our own abilities. Rather, we need to sincerely ask God what He wants in each situation. Then, being confident of God's will, we need to trust Him and obey in faith.

There is a very good chance at some point God will ask us to do something that is totally beyond us.  It's clear we will fail unless He intervenes.  So what will we do?  

In order to please God we need to be people who want to hear from Him, who recognize His voice and know when He is directing us a certain way. And we need to be people who trust God and are willing to step out in faith knowing with certainly that when God calls, He enables. 

Often hearing God's voice is a bigger problem than following in faith.  If Jesus appeared in our bedroom and told us to do something, many of us would have the faith to do it.  Unfortunately Jesus rarely appears in our bedroom to give us instructions.  So we struggle and procrastinate, not sure if we're hearing God correctly and paralyzed with fear in case we get it wrong.  Let's talk some more about that next week.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for 

and certain of what we do not see.  Hebrews 11:1