So you think God may be calling you to step out in a new life direction? That’s great! Now what?
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Episode 20 unpacks 5 proven steps I have found for pursuing a new life direction. I share a lot of my own story as examples, but your journey will be unique to you.
Smack dab in the middle between real life and real faith is—real fear. Fear of failure. Fear that we’ll look foolish. Fear that everyone will laugh when we do fail. Fear that __________ —fill in the blank with your own fear. There’s no shortage of reasons to be afraid. But how can we stop being afraid?
I believe that for those who have trusted in Christ as their only hope, God has not left us to be paralyzed by the unknown.
Instead, His Word gives us 7 steps for overcoming fear and rising victoriously above the challenges that come our way.
That’s not to say it will be easy.
So you want to step out in a new life direction. But you’re afraid. That’s normal. Fear often keeps us from moving forward. What if I showed you the steps needed to move forward with clarity, confidence, and abundant faith to live an authentic life adventure?
First let me acknowledge that I did not follow all of the steps I am about to share with you—not intentionally anyway. Some I had to learn the hard way.
Do you know where you are headed next in life? Do you know where you should be headed next? If you’re like a lot of us, you may have accidentally fallen into a life direction instead of intentionally choosing your best path.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it shouldn’t be that way.
God created each one of us with unique strengths, passions, and skills sets. He gave us each unique relationship connections that open doors of opportunity unavailable to others.
And He expects us to use it all to more fully reveal His majesty on earth as it is in heaven.
Have you ever worried about praying wrong? As we approach the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, I recall all the times I’ve wondered, Am I praying wrong. Am I praying for the right things? And so it goes.
I suspect we all face that same question when we pray at times on this journey to live an authentic life with abundant faith. We wish we could stop worrying about getting it right and start praying with confidence for what we know God wants.
But how do we know what God wants? And so the worrying begins.
Because of our natural human fixation on “the seen,” we tend to think only of the impact of our story in this brief season of our existence: the here and now.
Although that impact is not unimportant, as immortal beings we should be far more concerned with how our story will sound when it is told there and then, in that next season of existence that will extend through all eternity.
I have been traveling and keeping family commitments of late so I pushed the pause button on The FaithWalkers Podcast for this week only. But I wanted to offer you an alternative listening option.
Think of today’s post as similar to those episodes of your favorite shows where they weaved clips of previous shows together to create a new show that costs a lot less to produce.
I could always count on every MacGyver season to have at least one of those episodes. But I digress.
I know it is likely not everyone has listened to all the episodes thus far. This week could offer a chance to catch up on missed episodes you can use to grow your faith.
Here is a complete list of all 15 episodes to date. Episodes 1 and 2 are foundational. Just click on any of them to listen and get caught up.
Next week’s episode will feature an interview with Tyler Braun, author of Why Holiness Matters. We discuss habits of holiness and how to develop them.
One final thing.
You may have heard already that my friend and coauthor Erick Erickson has been battling some significant, life-threatening health issues the last several weeks that came to a head the last few days. You can read more about them here.
Please pray for his speedy recovery and for his family. I’ll shoot you a brief email later this week about the special bonus package for our book You Will Be Made to Care that we assembled prior to his illness.
Thank you for joining me on the journey and I’ll see you out on the trail.
Ok. I admit it. I’m a liar. Or am I? Funny thing about liars. No one believes them even when they do tell the truth. Which I am doing right now. I think.
If only I could be authentic and stop lying — to myself.
Here’s my problem. I am quite conscientious about speaking the truth to others–to you, for example. I’d put up with a lot of hurt to speak the truth to you. That’s not the problem.
It’s when I talk to myself–inside, where no one else can hear – that I struggle to speak the truth. I am all about being authentic with others, but I struggle being authentic with myself.
Weird, I know. But maybe you feel the same way.
How many times has it happened to you? You know you should read the Bible but you just don’t know how best to do it. Been there, done that.
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Over the many years of coaching Christians to engage the word, I developed a simple acrostic as a framework anyone can use.
What does Easter have to do with living an authentic life? Hint: It has nothing to do with jellybeans. Answer: The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the only reason I would ever want to live an authentic life.
Authentic means real, genuine, true to reality. We hear a lot these days about people who allegedly discover their authentic selves. And we are then expected to celebrate that discovery. But the truth is that our authentic selves are not to be celebrated as is.
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