(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)
(0:00 - 0:21)
You can lead the meeting, make the presentation, manage the team, take care of the family, solve the problem everybody else has been avoiding. You can be the person everyone calls when they don't know what to do. And then you get alone with a decision that matters to you and suddenly you're second-guessing everything.
(0:22 - 0:50)
What if I'm wrong? What if I'm not ready? What if I make the move and regret it? What if everybody else can see something I'm missing? And because you're a person of faith, let's be honest, there's often another layer. Somewhere along the way, you might have been told that because you believe in God, you should have all the confidence and courage in the world. Because you follow Jesus, you're supposed to have confidence.
(0:51 - 1:17)
And not being fearless means you don't have enough faith. Let's just sit with that for a second. I can't tell you how many times I heard as a kid from people like my Sunday school teacher or youth director or a neighbor that being insecure and uncertain meant that I wasn't trusting Jesus and I wasn't being a good Christian.
(1:18 - 1:43)
Frankly, I know it's a message that's out there from pastors and church members alike. Which tells me that if you've also heard that message, then you're not only struggling with situational second-guessing and low self-confidence, you now add a layer of yuck on top of that. All that does is to make you feel foolish at best or guilty at worst.
(1:43 - 1:53)
You know what I mean. Because surely a faithful Christian wouldn't be this scared. Surely if I really trusted God, I wouldn't be second-guessing myself.
(1:53 - 2:09)
Surely if my faith were stronger, I'd know exactly what to do. Can we please retire that idea? It's not only unhelpful, it's not even biblical. Welcome to Goals in Grace.
(2:10 - 2:34)
I'm Rev. Dr. Juliet Spencer, a certified high-performance coach, speaker, and pastor. And these days I'm known as the spirit-led strategist. Because I equip high-performing people to get out of their own way, reconnect with the wisdom and guidance that too often gets buried beneath all the noise, and move forward with greater clarity, courage, and intention.
(2:35 - 2:58)
And today we're talking about something I think a lot of accomplished people of faith experience, but don't necessarily say out loud. What happens when you believe in God, and you're still afraid? Faith doesn't cancel humanity. Sometimes we've created expectations around faith that God never really gave us.
(2:59 - 3:11)
Good expectations, yes. Faith should shape how we live, and should affect our priorities. Faith should change how we treat people, and how we use our resources.
(3:12 - 3:25)
I believe it should also shape how we make decisions, and how we understand ourselves in the world. But then there are those expectations that we've added. If I trust God, I won't worry.
(3:26 - 3:38)
If I'm spiritually mature, I'll always know what God wants me to do. If I'm praying enough, the decision will be obvious. If God is leading me, I won't feel afraid.
(3:38 - 3:51)
If I have enough faith, I'll feel confident. Really? Because somebody forgot to tell most of the Bible. Moses argued with God about his qualifications.
(3:52 - 4:18)
Gideon asked for reassurance. Esther had to gather her courage before approaching the king. Jeremiah essentially said, You've got the wrong guy.
I'm too young. And Peter, God bless him, could go from enormous courage to spectacular uncertainty at breathtaking speed. Which might be one of the reasons I like Peter so much.
(4:20 - 4:32)
Peter makes me feel better about myself. And then there's Jesus. In Gethsemane, Jesus didn't present us with some sanitized version of courage, where difficult things suddenly don't feel hard anymore.
(4:32 - 4:46)
Jesus said, My soul is deeply troubled, deeply grieved, even unto death. And he prays for the cup to pass from him. That matters.
(4:47 - 4:57)
If we define faithfulness as the absence of emotional struggle, we have a problem. Jesus struggled. The struggle wasn't evidence that he wasn't faithful.
(4:58 - 5:09)
He was faithful in the middle of the struggle. And I think there are a lot of us who need to hear that. Courage isn't a feeling you have to manufacture.
(5:10 - 5:27)
One of the traps of high performers is believing we need to feel confident before we can act confidently. And Christians can add, like I mentioned, that other layer. I need to feel confident because I'm supposed to.
(5:28 - 5:47)
So now not only are you nervous about the thing, you're also feeling nervous about being nervous about the thing. And maybe even feeling a little bit like a bad Christian. That's exhausting and completely unnecessary.
(5:49 - 6:01)
Courage isn't the elimination of fear. Courage is your willingness to decide that something else matters more. Esther didn't walk into that throne room because risk disappeared.
(6:01 - 6:10)
The risk was still there. She walked in because something mattered more than her fear. She said, if I die, I die.
(6:11 - 6:26)
That is not somebody saying, woohoo, I feel great about this. That's someone who counted the cost and chose the next faithful step anyway. That's a huge difference.
(6:27 - 7:31)
What if confidence isn't really what you need? What if you don't need to become absolutely certain of yourself? What if you need to become increasingly grounded in who you are, in what matters, and in whose you are? Because confidence based entirely on ourselves is always going to be fragile. Did I prepare enough? Do they like me? Am I qualified? What if somebody knows more than I do? What if I fail? What if I look foolish and embarrass myself? What if they don't choose me? But groundedness asks different questions. Who am I becoming? What do I know to be true? What matters most here? What's mine to do? Where might God invite me to trust rather than control? And what's the next right step I can take with the information I have? That last one's important.
(7:32 - 7:41)
I find that sometimes we use prayer as a way of postponing a decision. Ouch. I know, because I've done it.
(7:42 - 7:53)
But stay with me. There are times when we absolutely need to wait. There are times when the wisest, most faithful thing we can do is to be still.
(7:54 - 8:14)
But there are also times when we've prayed, thought, gathered information, sought wise counsel, and we're still saying, I'm just waiting for God to make it clear. When what we really mean is, I'm waiting until I don't feel afraid anymore. Let me say that again.
(8:15 - 8:35)
There are times when we say we're just waiting for God to make it clear, but what we really mean is, I'm waiting until I don't feel anxious anymore. But being spirit-led does not mean being passive. This is part of what being spirit-led means to me.
(8:36 - 8:53)
Those two words belong together. Spirit-led, which would be listening, praying, discernment, humility, which frankly feels really weird to say about myself, but you know what I mean. Being willing to have my plans disrupted.
(8:55 - 9:24)
Recognizing that I'm not the source of all wisdom, and thanking God for that, because that would be an enormous amount of pressure. But then there's also strategist. Thinking, planning, learning and evaluating, choosing and then acting, and taking responsibility for what I do with the gifts and opportunities, with, well, with the resources and wisdom that God's given me.
(9:25 - 9:40)
Faith isn't an excuse not to think, and strategy is not evidence that you don't trust God. Nehemiah prayed, and he made plans. He trusted God, and he inspected the walls.
(9:41 - 9:50)
He prayed, and he organized people. He believed God was at work, and he posted guards. I love that.
(9:50 - 10:15)
Sometimes I think we're waiting for a miraculous neon sign from heaven when God might be saying, Juliet, I gave you a brain, you're allowed to use it. Prayer and planning are not competitors, my friend, and faith and strategy are not enemies. Discernment can lead to decision.
(10:16 - 10:41)
So what's the spirit-led strategist's question for this week? Well, I want you to sit with it rather than answering too quickly. So here's the question. Where am I interpreting discomfort, anxiousness, worry as evidence that God is telling me no, when it may mean that I'm being asked to be courageous? Let me say it again.
(10:42 - 11:04)
Where am I interpreting discomfort and anxiousness as evidence that God is telling me no, when it may mean I'm being asked to be courageous? Discomfort doesn't automatically mean stop. Fear doesn't automatically mean wrong direction. And uncertainty doesn't automatically mean you haven't prayed enough.
(11:05 - 11:17)
And let me say this again. A lack of confidence doesn't mean a lack of faith. Sometimes you are simply standing at the edge of something that matters.
(11:17 - 11:43)
And sometimes you're standing at the edge of an opportunity to face a fear. So what is this week's practice? Well, choose one decision you've been circling, one action you've been thinking about taking. It might be at home, it might be at work, or it might be that you're already scheduled to take the action, but you're dreading it.
(11:44 - 12:33)
Okay, write it down. And then ask yourself, what do I already know? What am I genuinely uncertain about? What am I afraid of? What would wisdom tell me? How would somebody else who doesn't have my particular set of insecurities view this opportunity? And what does my faith tell me about who I am in this situation? And finally, if I didn't require myself to feel completely confident first, what would the next right step be? And thankfully, I only said the next step, not the entire plan. And of course, these questions will be in the show notes.
(12:34 - 12:59)
And just remember, you don't have to know how Chapter 12 ends before you write Chapter 3. You need enough clarity just for the next right move. But before we finish today, I know that based on my years of experience as a pastor and now as a coach, that this is something that impacts a lot of people. So I want to say a very special prayer just for you.
(13:00 - 13:21)
Will you join me? O gracious God, you know how badly we want certainty. We want a sign and the answer. There are times when we desperately want assurance that we're making the right decision and that everything is going to work out exactly as we want it to or need it to.
(13:23 - 13:45)
And sometimes, God, we even convince ourselves that if our faith were stronger, we wouldn't feel afraid. Forgive us for placing expectations on ourselves that you never placed on us. Remind us that courage doesn't require the absence of fear and faith doesn't require the absence of questions.
(13:47 - 14:05)
Trusting you does not mean that we have to pretend that difficult things aren't difficult. You invite us into a relationship of honesty and truthfulness. Lord, give us wisdom to know when to wait and courage to know when it's time to move.
(14:06 - 14:30)
Quiet the voices that don't deserve our attention. Help us to distinguish fear from wisdom, to acknowledge that sometimes discomfort is not a warning, and to recognize uncertainty from unfaithfulness. When we can't see the whole road ahead, give us enough light for the next right step.
(14:32 - 14:57)
Help us, O God, to be people who listen deeply, who think wisely and choose courageously, who trust you with what we cannot control. Fill our hearts with the power and strength of your Holy Spirit and help us to take bold steps, in part, because they're bold. In the powerful name of Christ we pray, amen.
(14:58 - 15:24)
I'm Rev. Dr. Juliet Spencer, the Spirit-Led Strategist. If I can equip you by letting you level up in this regard even further, if you're trying to figure out how do I become this courageous person and how do I overcome all of the negativity, then perhaps you'd be a good fit for Goals and Grace Coaching. I invite you to schedule a free coaching call to see if you're a good fit.
(15:25 - 15:30)
Until next time, my friend, may God bless you with goals and grace.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe. Go Unlimited to remove this message.)
