“Don’t let fear be the deciding factor in your decision,” the author said on a popular podcast. The advice seemed so simple and in my heart, I knew it was true, yet it was difficult to follow.
I asked myself how many decisions over the past few months had been made in fear instead of confidence that God would help me and lead me. Many times, my inner voice asked what other people would think instead of trusting Him. Even though I knew He was asking me to take a step of faith, doubt became my guide instead of His love and grace.
Even though I may never reach a place where fear has no influence over my decisions, I know God’s voice can become louder.
And when His voice becomes louder, I’m obedient to His leading, even when I’m afraid. My knowledge of who He is drowns the other voices telling me that He’s going to let me down.
A few months ago I listened to a pastor read the parable of the talents. The parable was familiar and at first, my mind wandered, but the more I listened, the more I realized something I’d never seen before. For the first time, I saw how different the first two workers’ view of their Master was from the last one. When the first worker reports to him, you can almost hear the joy and anticipation in their voice as he says:
Master…you entrusted me with five bags of gold and see, I have gained five more.”
The language this worker uses conveys the knowledge that by giving him the gold or talents to invest, the Master was sharing his wealth with him and trusting him with something valuable. It’s as though he knows the Master wouldn’t have done this if he wasn’t confident that he would use it wisely.
But when we get to the third worker, the view of the Master is completely different. It’s as though he’s describing another person entirely, and his countenance is downcast.
I knew you were a hard man, harvesting where you have not down and fathering where you have not scattered seed,” he said.
Matthew 25:24 NIV
What a minute, is this the same Master? The trust and joy are replaced by a fear that the Master will treat him unfairly. While the first two accounts show a person who wants to share his harvest with the workers, the last one doesn’t see this characteristic in him. He sees someone who only wants to take and not give freely.
As I listened and later reread the account, I realized one crucial aspect of our faith journey. I saw the reason fear often leads us, even when our souls long to live a life of freedom.
Our view of who God is will always impact our willingness to use our gifts for Him.
If we view him as a hard man who is always looking for us to mess up or abandon us, we will likely hoard what we have and let fear lead us. If I’m honest, there have been long seasons of my life where I’ve viewed him this way. My experience with people trusted filtered my perspective of God, and because they let me down, I assumed he would too.
But the more I spent time with him and approached him with an honest heart, the more I saw him as a gracious Father who gives in abundance. Slowly, my countenance became lighter as I realized we can use the abilities, gifts, and resources he’s given us without hesitation because he wants to multiply them and give us more.
Sometimes, we won’t see the harvest right away as the workers did in the parable. It may take years of planting and not seeing fruit. But when we work with God instead of resisting his leading, the harvest will come.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Abby McDonald.
Featured Image by Jan Mallander from Pixabay
