DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Fearless
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Fearless. © source

Something happened last year.

I followed God down a seemingly impossible path and lost an obstacle along the way:
fear.

What you talking bout, Willis?

Most people wouldn’t describe me as fearful. Yet, I can honestly say that I left a certain fear behind in 2012.

When the Lord initially spoke to us about planting a ministry in Beverly Hills that “looks like heaven, sounds like heaven, loves like God loves and lives like Christ lives”, my first inclination was to get on Interstate 405 and start running in the opposite direction. LOL!

Hey, Flo-Jo-Jonah!

Was I bold enough to try and pull a Flo-Jo like Jonah (Jonah 1)?!

You gotta admit. Jonah had some verve! Who gets a God-given assignment (to cry out to a lost people and call them to repentance because God cares for them) and then decides to disobey and break out on his own mission? Jonah did.

Fear of Success

But Jonah didn’t run because he was afraid of failing. Jonah ran because he was afraid of succeeding. Have you ever been there?

In Jonah 4:2, Jonah says he knew God would save the people if Jonah went and preached repentance and they repented: “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity…”

Jonah didn’t want the mission to succeed. He didn’t want God to forgive the people.

Fear of Failure

Here’s where I differ from Jonah. I really wanted God’s mission to succeed. I’ve interceded for His creative people and expected an intervention for a long time. And I actually believed that the vision God gave us could change our world. But that also meant my world would change.

Sundays would be on lock down. Kevin and I would be committing to living and doing life with our community in LaLa Land. Our children would be P.K.’s (preacher kids). And I’d be “That Chick” in our industry, you know, the one who speaks for God.

But I could go through all of that, give up my life, and still have no guarantee of success. I could take all these risks and get no tangible return… (intangible would be learning to trust God more, lean on Him, turn to Him for daily provisions, etc.) For God didn’t promise us an easy road. He promised that daily we’d be conformed into the image of His Son.

Jonah ran because he selfishly wanted God to hold a grudge against the Ninevites. I wanted to run because I selfishly didn’t want to fail. I was doing fine as the actor-producer-writer who did ministry on the side. Why mess that up?

Loving Others

What I could not escape though was this overwhelming conviction that my life is not my own. And if truly I am a follower of Christ and I want to live like He lives, then I too must be willing to love others and sacrifice for them.

That kind of love, by the way, drives out fear! 1 John 4:7-20 says, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us…”

Perfect love is what countered the fear of failure… that, and actually failing. I was trying to do things in my own strength and that just never works out, does it? Have you experienced that? Coming to the end of your own abilities and realizing that only God’s plans are going to work? That was 2012. I ended up having to let go all of my own plans and get on board with God’s plans.

Fearless

2013 is so different, Fam. I want to encourage you today.

If you feel God’s tug to step out on a Mission: Impossible and you’re lacing up your Usain Bolt track shoes to run in the opposite direction, press pause. 2012 was one of the most challenging of my life, but it was also one of the most significant and rewarding. We are in the center of God’s perfect will for our lives and we are loving and walking with God’s people, just as He ordained. We have a great group serving with us. We are fearless.

That’s what I desire for you.

So, I leave you with the question that my wonderful husband Kevin asked of me that caused me to retire my running shoes: “All these years, all the training, all the experience, what else did you think God was preparing you for?”

Fearless,
Naima

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