Fear: an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

Failure: lack of success

As believers, why is it that we spend so much struggling with fear? Did you know that “Do not be afraid,” “Fear not” is in the Bible 365 times. That’s one verse for every single day of the year. It seems to me that if the Lord has put the much time into telling us not to be afraid that we’d be able to lay our fear at the alter and move on.

I’ll be honest, I there are several things that cause me to be afraid. Some are normal. Others, maybe not so much. I have learned that if I think I am going to fail at something, then I don’t even make the attempt to try. I grew up as a military brat. Failure at anything was never really accepted. This led me down the path of not even attempting to do certain things that I really wanted to do because I couldn’t handle the thought of anyone viewing me as a failure.

I have shared in at least one other post that I am a member of Christian Women in Media. I joined this group because I have a desire to be a freelance writer, author and hopefully, one day a speaker. After attending meetings for over a year, I officially joined and paid dues back in November. My husband asks me frequently “You want to write. What are you doing about it?” I’ll be honest. I don’t always have an answer for him, even though I have a long list of dreams associated with writing.

Fast forward to March. I attended a regional dinner of CWIMA. April was sitting at my table and was getting ready to launch a brand new online women’s ministry within the next week. She talked about her dreams for the ministry as well as talking about guest bloggers. I knew I wanted to be a part of what she was doing, but couldn’t find the words or the courage to speak up.

Our main speaker, Angela, talked a great deal about overcoming fear. It was almost as if she had been inside of my head, knew what I had been praying, as well as been a part of several conversations I’d over the past couple of weeks. There were several times while she was speaking that I honestly wanted to cry. As she was speaking, I felt like the Lord kept telling me that I needed to talk to April once the dinner was over. I argued with the Lord for the better part of an hour.

Once we had been dismissed I really wanted to run to my car and speed home. After all, who was I to ask to write for a new women’s ministry? My degree is not in journalism and all I have is a blog that I don’t keep up with like I should because I don’t think most people want to read what I have to say. Most of my writing is in my journal and those are private thoughts that I know no other soul is going to read. Yes, I gripped with fear.

I have to laugh how the Lord works. As I am trying to get to the door to basically escape, who should I hit the door with at the same time? Yep, April. At that point, I opened my mouth and tentatively asked if she was looking to add any more guest bloggers and would she consider me? I was shocked when she said “Yes.” I really wanted to ask if she was sure, but I didn’t. We ended up standing in the parking lot and talking until almost 11p that night.

The following week I sent her a link to my blog. We talked about a possible timeline for a post. Within about two weeks I had sent her a bio, a picture and a blog post. Honestly, I didn’t think she would like or accept it. When she actually posted it, I was probably little more excited than I should have been. This was the first time I had been published anywhere. If I had let the fear of failure grip me that Thursday night, this never would have happened. Yesterday I submitted my second post for the ministry.

What is it you are afraid of? Are you like me and the fear of failure has prevented you from truly going after your dreams? If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you do? Do you have a dream you know the Lord has placed on your heart and it’s been there more years than you care to admit? What are you waiting for? It’s past time to take that first step! Go forth and do NOT fear!