What Shall I Fear?

Often, we make things a bigger deal than they need to be.

One of the worst memories in my soccer career was missing a game-winning penalty kick. After that, I was terrified to take another penalty kick, fearing I might miss again.

My coach saw that this fear was holding me back and that I’d turned from a confident player to a scared one due to one mistake. He confronted me about it and gave me some advice that I still use in my life today. He said, “I know you are scared, but what’s the worst that could happen? You miss again? OK, what power does that have over you? Only you can decide that.”

Just as I had to decide what level of power missing another shot was for me, God asks us in Scripture what power man has over us.

If God is on our side, nothing this world can do can truly hurt us. Even death can’t hurt us because we will then be reunited with Christ. (Philippians 1:21) As followers of Christ, we must make that decision: are we going to live in the freedom of Christ or be chained to the fear of this world?

I had to choose. Was I going to let the fear of failure stop me from playing with all my heart, or was I going to understand that failure is a possibility but not give it the power to stop me from trying?

We have to look at our lives and ask ourselves if we are letting the world control us or living in the truth and freedom that Christ provides.