I really like listening to the radio. Call it comfort or habitual thinking but there’s just something about getting in the car and riding to the sounds of my favorite worship song that calms me. Recently, while I was listening to a local gospel station, a sermon came on entitled “The Fear of People” and based solely on the title, I knew it was going to be good. That feeling was confirmed when the pastor opened with this scripture – “Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety.” – Proverbs 29:25, NLT.
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Did you catch that? Fearing people is a trap but trusting the Lord means safety. Now you may read this and think “Brie, I’m not afraid of anybody.” That may be so, but it’s important to understand that this verse is not just talking about fearing people in and of themselves, it also means fearing their opinions of us or yielding to peer pressure.
What if I don’t come to the party and they judge me? What will they say when I tell them I don’t drink? If I show my true colors, are people still going to love me? Is this really a safe space to share my feelings?
These are the opinions I concerned myself with regularly, especially as a teen. But one day, being so caught up in what people would think of me just got exhausting. When I followed the crowd I felt like they would accept me, but as our scripture says, it was a trap. Doing one thing they expected meant having to do another thing – sinking so far in a hole that I couldn’t dig myself out anymore. So one day, I asked God that my focus would be on fulfilling His will and focusing on what He thought of me – that I would see myself through His eyes and make decisions accordingly.
That changed everything.
I learned very quickly that the fear of people or of rejection was hindering me.I wasn’t able to make choices based on my beliefs, I made them based on the people around me. When you’re committed to living intentionally, you don’t have the time to risk such things. You have a clear path that was predestined before you even existed. Nevertheless, fearing people and their opinions can keep you from from finding it.
[clickToTweet tweet=”I wasn’t able to make choices based on my beliefs, I made them based on the people around me. ” quote=”I wasn’t able to make choices based on my beliefs, I made them based on the people around me. ” theme=”style6″]
Who is it that you fear today? I pray those feelings will be released and that from this moment forward, you walk in confidence, determination and purpose, knowing that “trusting the Lord means safety.”