Scared -de- cat?

A bunch of us were talking the other day about the well known author and speaker Francis Chan who says we shouldn't ask for safety in our prayers. He argues we should simply ask to be in the will of God and embrace whatever that is good or bad. An interesting debate ensued about prayers for protection in the the book of Psalms and the role of intercessory prayer and stuff. Which was great because this is the business of working out our salvation. I was thinking about Mr Chan's position. I kinda like the aspect of putting God firmly in the driving seat. This encourages us in the promise 'all things will work to good for those called according to His good plan and purpose' (Rom8:28), yet it requires scar-de-cats like me to embrace the uncomfortable. Embracing things like self-discipline, fear, rejection, suffering aren't on most people's top 10 things to do... Yet without these aspects of life we'd never know miracles, we'd never develop in faith or character or see the intervention of a loving God. We can however have had things so rough for so long we get to thinking God's will for us only involves difficulty and that's not true. Life will be rich in diversity and in the tough times clinging onto the promises of God can be the achievement! 

Hebrews 12:1 tells us we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses cheering us on - I wonder if in the midst of fear or frustration, if we actually heard angels shouting 'go for it, you can do this, there's so much more than you realise at stake' do you think we'd take more risks? I run a self esteem course for women called 'Shine' and in one of the sessions we ask 'what would you do if your life had no limits'? It's really interesting how difficult it is for the participants to get their heads round this idea, but it's a beautiful thing to see it when they do! Psychologist Suzan Jeffer's wrote a book called 'feel the fear and do it anyway' in it she posited in the West we are conditioned to take the safe, neat, low risk option suggesting this robs us of life. Do you agree? Are there things you'd love to do but you let fear, pride or risk of rejection hold you back? Do you look back  on your life and wonder if only I'd... 

I really believe God needs us more than ever to be risk taker's, to press through our fears, our comfort and be lions not scared-de-cats. I'm going to do one things this week that requires me to feel the fear and do it anyway - I'll let you know how I get on...

Hugs Ruth x