justelaine

I think we are afraid to obey God because we have our eyes on ourselves and our circumstances from a human point of view. I see five main problems: 1.We aren't sure God is really saying this to us. If we are listening and asking God to use us, we should expect Him to give us instructions. Often our supposed doubt is mainly an excuse not to obey. 2.We can easily see failure due to our inadequacies and can't see the creative way that God plans to solve the problems. I've witnessed some really creative ways God has answered prayers. 3.We don't quite trust God to enable us, take care of all the details, and take adequate care of us while we serve Him. We are afraid either that He won't stick with us all the way or that He won't be concerned about details that are minor to Him but seem big to us. God loves us and knows what's important better than we do, so we should trust Him. 4.We are more concerned about what people will think of us than about serving God and pleasing Him. We should have our eyes so focused on God that we readily obey. 5.We don't see the big picture of what God can really accomplish when we obey Him in this particular task, which may not seem important. We trust too much in our own intelligence. A private in the army should not question the orders of the general, especially One who is all-knowing and all-powerful. We need to deal with fear by asking God for courage and obeying in spite of fear. When there is time before we need to act, we can study, memorize, and meditate on Bible passages that give us courage. Courage is simply acting bold even when we are afraid, instead of letting that fear defeat us. Leaders must especially show courage because they need to set an example for their followers and because they are more likely to face the responding attack from Satan and the negative feedback of other people.