Testimony time! A few years ago, my husband asked myself and the rest of the staff to begin writing devotions on a weekly basis. Self-doubt and fear quickly sifted to the surface and began speaking negativity in my ear. What do I have to share? Who would possibly want to read what I have to say? I can tend to ramble and get off track…my writing will be confusing. I didn’t believe I had a voice worth sharing. But I began anyways.
Some weeks I would hunt and hunt for inspiration. It was hiding from me like a childhood game of hide-and-seek…and I was not a successful seeker. It was work. The words didn’t flow. The ideas were unclear. Self-doubt and fear never left. They were just lurking in the shadows waiting for their time to confirm I shouldn’t be writing.
But God is bigger and more powerful than self-doubt and fear!
You know that phenomenon that occurs after you get a new car? When you all of a sudden realize just how many other cars are out there just like yours? You never noticed them before, but now you are focused and see them everywhere! That’s what began happening with my writing.
God showed me, with clarity, just how frequently He spoke to me. I went from having no writing ideas to now having to decide which one was the best to share. He spoke to me through my Bible study, through my small group, through the sermon on Sunday, through my walks and time outside, through parenting and wifery (that’s a word right?). He was EVERYWHERE! It was all of a sudden so evident that He was guiding me through my days…always teaching, always challenging, always redirecting.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. —James 3:17 NKJV
Understand today you are not alone! He is with you! He is calling your name! He is your shepherd and just wants you to FOLLOW HIM.
ASK—Do I have the courage to follow Jesus? What opportunities have I said “no” to out of self-doubt and/or fear?