Faith over fear................which do you choose?

A couple days ago I was looking through my memories on my Facebook page when one particular memory stopped me in my tracks.  It was a simple post with just a few words.  Seven words to be exact.  I posted that on a Wednesday night after bible study.  The date was February 6, 2013.  "Faith over fear.............which do you choose?"  I was living in fear.  I had been living in fear for a few years.  Here was part of my problem........okay, maybe a BIG part of my problem..........I was a people pleaser.  I wanted to make people happy.  I didn't like upsetting people or dealing with confrontation, so I did what was necessary to keep the peace.  What was happening when I was people pleasing?  I was pleasing everyone but myself.  I was miserable, stressed out, and sometimes just plain cranky from trying to do all this pleasing.  So, I asked God to help me.  I needed to make a change.  I needed to start pleasing Him which would ultimately please myself.   I started making changes with my pleasing ways and I slowly started to see things change.  What I didn't expect in all of this was to discover the root of my pleasing ways was fear.

Fear is a natural emotion.  Sometimes fear is there for a good reason but then there are times when fear is there for no logical reason other than a person fearing the unknown and the "what ifs" in life.  The fear I was experiencing was wrapped in the "what ifs" that could come my way as a result of me standing up for myself and my son.  My fear was wrapped up in people.  You see, I had these people in my life that I spent so much time trying to please and keep happy, that I was making myself miserable.  I feared that if I didn't keep them happy, they would make my life miserable. I had seen their wrath unfold with other people in their lives and I didn't want any part of that.  Looking back at it now, I was already miserable with trying to please them but I didn't realize it until I stepped out of the bubble I was living in and was finally looking inside the bubble from the outside.  Wow.  That was the game changer for me.  Once I finally stopped living in fear, and started living in God's love and truth, everything changed.  Yes, there were consequences to my choice to stop people pleasing these people.  Do I regret it?  No way.  My life is much fuller now and I'm able to be the person that God has intended me to be.  I'm not perfect, far from it actually, but I'm walking alongside Jesus on this journey and I can't imagine doing so any other way.

This past week in bible study we talked about fear and how you can turn fear into joy.  Yes, it's possible!  We got the privilege to hear one of the women in our women's bible study give an awesome testimony about the high school dance team that she coaches and their story of fear.  A group of determined young ladies and a coach that believed in them lead to the most amazing routine taking place.  So my question to you is this:  What room does fear have?