The Scary thing? You Don't Think You’re Scared.

 

In a world full of people hiding in fear behind their screens, make the choice to fear not.

Roughly 2000 years ago, a man named Simon was out fishing with his brother Andrew. They had been fishing all through the night when they came across a man on the beach. Andrew had already met the man and believed him to be the Son of God. The man was Jesus of Nazareth and their meeting that day would change the brother’s lives forever.

Christ invited them to push out and toss out their net for another catch. Simon replied that he’d been at it all night, but Jesus insisted, and Simon obeyed.

The amount of that they caught threatened to break the net and sink the boat. Amazed and in awe, and surely remembering what his brother believed about Jesus; Simon fell to his knees and said, “depart from me; for I am a sinful man.”

It’s interesting to note that having experienced the goodness of God, Simon didn’t feel relief, he didn’t rejoice, he didn’t even say thank you. Instead, he felt undeserving and asked the miracle worker to go away.

Jesus, having wisdom and discernment beyond man responded with two words: “fear not”.

Isn’t it interesting that Peter didn’t say he was afraid? He maybe didn’t even know that he was afraid, and yet the response of the Christ was to “fear not.”

—

I don’t know what Simon Peter was afraid of, but I do know that we can learn from his experience.

Do we, after experiencing God’s goodness, ask the miracle worker to go away? If so, what are we so afraid of?

What is stopping you from experiencing more of Jesus’ love in your life?

What are you afraid of?

Taking the time to answer that question honestly will be a catalyst for the rest of your life. Are you terrified that you’ll never measure up? Or that you’ll never be lovable? Or that you’ll never produce enough? Or that you’ll always be too much?

I’ve learned that most of us choose to ignore that question and hide from the answer because the only thing scarier than fear is choosing to look at the root of it.

In a world where it is popular to hide behind screens from our fears — choose to face your fears and then follow the invitation of the Son of God, and fear not.

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