{"id":1661,"date":"2010-03-14T16:52:05","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T22:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/?p=1661"},"modified":"2010-03-14T16:52:05","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T22:52:05","slug":"today-the-gathering-%e2%80%93-accept-no-mediocre-life-i-will-conquer-my-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/today-the-gathering-%e2%80%93-accept-no-mediocre-life-i-will-conquer-my-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"Today @ The Gathering \u2013 Accept No Mediocre Life: I Will Conquer My Fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If there is such a thing as one main problem that faces people world over, it\u2019s the problem of fear.<\/p>\n

Every day we are challenged to conquer our fears.\u00a0 And yet oftentimes they conquer us.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found there are three things that go on inside when fear conquers you.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You become paranoid.<\/strong> Fear makes you wonder what other people are saying or thinking about you.\u00a0 Fear has a way of making you feel like you\u2019re on the outside.\u00a0 Fear makes you question other people\u2019s motives and actions.\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t they speak to me?\u00a0 Why did <\/em>they speak to me?\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t they compliment my clothing?\u00a0 Why did they say something about what I wear?\u00a0 Paranoia is a sure sign that fear is working on your heart.<\/li>\n
  2. Fear makes you prejudiced.<\/strong> It is true that we fear the things we don\u2019t understand.\u00a0 We fear the unfamiliar.\u00a0 We fear people who look, sound, and think differently from us.\u00a0 That\u2019s fear\u2019s job \u2013 to isolate and polarize people from people.<\/li>\n
  3. Fear makes us feel powerless. <\/strong> It\u2019s fear that tells us that we\u2019ll never get another job, that we\u2019ll never find a mate, that our children will never get on the right path, or that our best days are behind us.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The only antidote to fear is faith; and not just any kind of faith.\u00a0 It\u2019s what I call a first-hand faith.<\/p>\n

    A lot of us live with second-hand faith.\u00a0 That is faith that has been handed down to us by our parents, or our families, or even our spouse.\u00a0 The truth is, faith doesn\u2019t work that way.\u00a0 Another person can\u2019t believe for you, can\u2019t do your choosing for you.\u00a0 Faith is first-hand and personal, or it\u2019s nothing.\u00a0 We talked about the three evidences of first-hand faith.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The first evidence is confidence.<\/strong> We used Hebrews 11, the great faith chapter.\u00a0 And it said that the early men and women of God were famous for their faith.\u00a0 They had an unshakeable confidence in who God was and what He would do on the basis of His character.\u00a0 For example, God can always be trusted to be who He is and do what He does.<\/strong> So the question is, who is God, and what does He do?\u00a0 We know that God is creative, He\u2019s loving, and He\u2019s just.\u00a0 We know that those qualities will always be expressed in how he deals with us and with those around us.<\/li>\n
    2. The second evidence of faith is conviction<\/strong>.\u00a0 Conviction simply means that this is what I know God has led me to do.\u00a0 This is a little trickier because often times we excuse what we do by saying, \u201cGod told me.\u201d\u00a0 But this is something that is deep, personal, and abiding; an inner conviction that not only should something be done, but this should be done by me, here, in this moment.\u00a0 It\u2019s the faith that gives us the confidence to take the right risk.<\/li>\n
    3. The third evidence is commitment.<\/strong> It\u2019s when we actually act on our faith, when we do something that backs up our profession.\u00a0 It\u2019s where belief and behavior come together in one beautiful expression of a life filled with joy, happiness, and confidence in the will of God.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      If I were you, I wouldn\u2019t be wearing any \u201cNo Fear\u201d t-shirts, because no fear<\/em> is not the object.\u00a0 The object is to conquer the fears that conquer us, and to do it day by day, as we develop a first-hand faith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      If there is such a thing as one main problem that faces people world over, it\u2019s the problem of fear. Every day we are challenged to conquer our fears.\u00a0 And yet oftentimes they conquer us.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found there are three things that go on inside when fear conquers you. You become paranoid. Fear makes you … Continue reading “Today @ The Gathering \u2013 Accept No Mediocre Life: I Will Conquer My Fears”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1661"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=1661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}