God wants His children to be free from all fear. That’s why Jesus told so many people to “Fear not.” Not only does God want you as a believer to be fearless, He wants to use you to help others who are bound up with fear and worry.
Psalm 27:1 (NLT) The Lord is my light and my salvation— so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble?
There is no reason for a believer walking with God to be afraid or to tremble in the face of danger. We’re going to talk about a different kind of fear. It’s the fear of failing God. Some people are afraid to try anything new, because they’re afraid of failing. They’re afraid of what God or other people may think if they fail. Not all failure is sin, but all sin is failure. We’ve all failed at one time or another in lives. We’ve all dropped the ball when we should have caught it.
I’m reminded of a recent baseball game. The Cardinals were playing the Dodgers in the National League Division Series. The Cardinals were looking to tie the series with a win in the second game. It was the ninth inning, the Cardinals were up 2-1, two outs and James Loney of the Dodgers hit a ball right to Cardinal Matt Holiday in the outfield. An easy catch, right? Wrong, he dropped the ball. In baseball, a failure is called an error. That was a big error. The Dodgers went on the win the game and the series.
There’s times when we’ve dropped the ball for God in the past. I’m not talking about just a mistake, but a time when we’ve sinned. Those times can come back to haunt us, to discourage us, to keep us from doing the things God is calling us to. We fear that we may fail again. We fear that maybe God doesn’t love us anymore or care about us, now that we’ve failed him. Some people feel that their past sins are so great, maybe God won’t forgive them. Let’s see what the Bible has to say about failing God.
Listen to my November 29, 2009 message “Fear of Failing God” (message notes).