Fear loves to disguise itself as wisdom. “Feardom” makes taking leaps of faith seem foolish, and erodes your trust in God down to only what you can see and understand. It advises you to control everything and everyone in your world to protect them from what feardom says might happen if you don’t. It counsels you to mistrust first, and criticize later.
Jesus said we must be like children. That He wants us to trust Him, keep innocent hearts, and have no baggage like fear, prejudice, or bitterness to weigh us down seems obvious. But I believe one of the greatest reasons God wants us to be like children is because they embrace wonder. They love to explore, learn, and grow, but they know intuitively there are some things that belong to the realms of “deep magic,” as C. S. Lewis called it.
The enemy spends a lot of time and resources on wounding, offending, shaming, and tempting you out of awe and wonder. When we trade awe for what we can control, we may justify it reason, practicality, and maturity, but more often than not, it’s fears of failure and loss trying to control the heart and mind.
Real wisdom comes from the awe of God’s presence, and so, wisdom loves to lead you into ever–increasing encounters with Him. Even if something is new, unknown, and challenging, wisdom invites you into God’s faith, peace, courage, joy, creativity, and wonder as you look at the possibilities in front of you from His perspective. Wisdom equips and empowers you for the journey, while feardom hands you a shovel to dig an underground bunker.
Cultivate wisdom in your life by choosing wonder over logic. Begin by celebrating your blessings, including the ones you can’t control or define. Don’t just acknowledge them, take so much joy in who God wants to be for you in all your relationships and circumstances, that it overwhelms every negative thought you have—until you’re so overcome with awe, wonder, faith, hope, and love that it transforms your heart and mind. That’s where wonder heals pain, and wisdom pushes out fear, and where the enemy avoids you because you’re just too exhaustively happy to pick a fight with.
I pray you have a hit–feardom–in–the–face–with–its–own–shovel–and–take–leaps–of–faith kind of day.
Equip Your Spirit 