Thoughts: Lately Jeff and I have been talking a lot about the fear of man and also my desire to be free from all the grasps it has on my life. I just found this verse the other day in Galatians 1, “For if I still pleased men, i would not be a bondservant of Christ.” and that is a serious statement. I cannot believe that’s in the Bible actually. You cannot be a bondservant of Christ when you are a slave to someone else’s opinions.
So I have been asking the Lord to root out the fear of man: fear of people’s opinions and their thoughts, fear of rejection, disproval, or even fear of being wrong or looked at funny. I have realized after searching through some Bible verses that I am not worthy of being a leader if i fall to the fear of man, because if I cannot tell someone the truth (whether they are in serious sin or even if they just have a little speck in their eye) because I’m afraid of what they are going to say or think of me! That’s not a leader. A leader is someone with biblical truth and able to say hard things. I want to say hard things.
So I want to encourage you, if you fall into this catagory, come along in the journey with me, and ATTACK fear of man in your daily prayers. (That’s what my pastor Jeff says, he is a good man. He also said i should write a book) So pray that you are led by the fear of the Lord, and declare your identity (who you are) before the Lord, who HE says you are, no matter what people’s opinions say. I’ll warn you that as soon as you start praying for the Lord to root it out of you, that He’ll begin to bring it up in your life, and put the people that will need to hear truth RIGHT in front of your face… 🙂 keep perservering. You are called to be a leader!
-Bethany