Latest / Arise Women of God / Fear vs. Faith: What God Really Wants You to Do
Transcript
- 0:00Have you ever felt fear when God impressed upon your mind or heart something.
- 0:05That he wanted you to do?
- 0:07Stay tuned, because today we're going to talk about that and how an epiphany.
- 0:12I had from reading two parables has.
- 0:16Shifted my perspective on this completely.
- 0:21Are you a woman who knows God is calling you to something more, but you're unsure where to start or how to grow it into something impactful?
- 0:30You are not alone, and you're in the right place.
- 0:34Welcome to the Arise Women of God podcast, a show for Christian women who feel called to shine his light and step into their divine purpose.
- 0:44Each week you'll hear stories of faithful women, both from the Bible and today, who heard God's voice and chose to say yes even when it felt uncomfortable or uncertain, to step with faith into the unknown.
- 0:58You'll walk away with encouragement, spiritual insight, and practical steps to follow those holy promptings in your own life.
- 1:08So let's arise together as women warriors of light.
- 1:11Let's do it God's way, God's strong.
- 1:18Hello, Hello and welcome to another Arise Women of God podcast.
- 1:21I'm your host, Tamara K.
- 1:23Anderson, and today I'm letting you take a second peek into one of our accountability groups where we have a discussion around two parables and fear and faith and preparing for the Lord's second coming.
- 1:40So let me share this epiphany with.
- 1:41You, and hopefully it can change your mind and heart as well.
- 1:48I'm actually going to start us off with the spiritual thought this morning.
- 1:53I had a big, big epiphany this morning, and I wanted to share it with you.
- 1:57Kind of surprised me when I read it because you know how, you know how that happens when you've read something like what feels like a million times, and all of a sudden you see something new and you're like,
- 2:09how long has that been there?
- 2:14It's been there the whole time, right, honey?
- 2:17I was reading in Matthew chapter 25 this morning, and I was reading the parable of the talents, rereading it, and you know that's where the one where the Savior gives the five talents, the two talents and the one
- 2:31talent.
- 2:32And I noticed two things that I wanted to point out to you today.
- 2:36The first is that the parable right before it is the parable of the ten virgins.
- 2:44And immediately following that, that kind of rebuke to the unwise virgins, where he says, I never knew you.
- 2:55He starts this second parable, which is the parable of the talents.
- 3:01And of course we know that the five doubled it.
- 3:04The two Doubled it.
- 3:06They were commended for working hard and doubling their talents.
- 3:12And I've always looked at the one.
- 3:15The.
- 3:15The.
- 3:15The servant who got the one talent and said, why didn't he or she do something with that?
- 3:22Why didn't they?
- 3:24And this time I was reading, and in verse.
- 3:28Let's see, verse 25, simple phrase.
- 3:32This is why he said, I was afraid.
- 3:39Whoa.
- 3:39Afraid.
- 3:41And it, like, pierced me this time because I paused and I thought, oh, my word.
- 3:50I remember getting that prompting to write my book and being scared to death.
- 3:58I remember being told to start that podcast and being scared to death.
- 4:04Yep.
- 4:05And having it stop me and delaying it and putting it off and all of these things.
- 4:12And all of a sudden, it was like the Lord was saying, it's not just you who feels that fear.
- 4:18This is the part that I hadn't seen before, is here we are right before the Second Coming.
- 4:24Want to be wise.
- 4:25Want to be those wise virgins.
- 4:28Right?
- 4:28We want to be prepared.
- 4:30And one of the things he's saying so that we're not foolish is this second parable.
- 4:36I think that he wants us to push past the fear and do something with the talents that he's given us.
- 4:45And it was just like this huge, oh, my goodness gracious.
- 4:52Wow.
- 4:54And it just kind of surprised me and humbled me all at once, because I was like, okay, I can see now because my prayers have been, how can I prepare for the Second Coming?
- 5:05That's how can I prepare myself and my family and those around me for the Second Coming?
- 5:11And this is the answer that he gave me.
- 5:14Magnify your talents.
- 5:16Wow.
- 5:17Follow those inspirations that you're getting.
- 5:21Because the truth is, each of us is called to minister to a few or maybe a lot.
- 5:29It doesn't matter how many we reach, only that we act on the promptings that we get.
- 5:35And we're not afraid.
- 5:38Right.
- 5:39Right.
- 5:41Kari, it looks like you have a thought.
- 5:43Go ahead.
- 5:45Just being reminded, I mean, that is the first temptation in the Garden of Eden is fear.
- 5:53He sets fear into their hearts.
- 5:56You know, they're hiding.
- 5:58They are afraid of God.
- 5:59They are hiding.
- 6:01Yeah.
- 6:02And the answer also is faith.
- 6:05Faith always overcomes fear.
- 6:06Right.
- 6:07And that's what helped me push through, is I focus on Jesus.
- 6:10I focused on the people I knew he could help me reach because I remember being in their shoes not very long ago.
- 6:17And so I focused on, okay, this is going to make a difference for them.
- 6:21And God isn't going to give me something that he's not going to qualify me or Open the right door for me so that I can.
- 6:27He's going to open the way.
- 6:28And that's what that faith is.
- 6:30God will make anything I feel is impossible because I feel I don't have the skills.
- 6:36He'll make it possible.
- 6:38I wanted to share something with you.
- 6:40I don't know.
- 6:40Have any of you ever seen a talent?
- 6:44No.
- 6:45A talent is an actual.
- 6:46We would call it.
- 6:47We would call it a coin, only it's not.
- 6:51It is as big as a dishwasher.
- 6:54Oh, what?
- 6:56Really?
- 6:57A talent is huge and heavy.
- 6:59We saw these in the museum in Turkey.
- 7:03We saw an actual talent that they had dug up and it.
- 7:08It might weigh 2,000 pounds, I don't know.
- 7:11Oh, wow.
- 7:12I had no idea.
- 7:13Huge.
- 7:13I know.
- 7:15And so when you think that, when you just think about this parable, you think first that whatever the Lord gives us, it's huge.
- 7:26He gives us.
- 7:27It isn't like just a little, oh, look, I have a gold coin.
- 7:31You know, how special.
- 7:33It's more than that.
- 7:35And secondly, what must it have taken to hide.
- 7:42Would take a lot of effort to hide something that big.
- 7:48He said he had to bury it, but I mean, he's going to have to dig out a six by six grave to do it.
- 7:58Anyway, I just thought I would share that with you because we were so gobsmacked.
- 8:02We were just like, oh my gosh, that's a talent.
- 8:06Oh my gosh.
- 8:08I know, that's amazing.
- 8:10Thank you for sharing that insight.
- 8:13I've always pictured talents as little coins.
- 8:15Right, exactly.
- 8:18Well, that's what we thought.
- 8:19We thought, oh, we're going to get to see talent.
- 8:21I bet it's cute, you know.
- 8:26That's amazing.
- 8:28Awesome.
- 8:28Any thoughts you want to share, Wendi?
- 8:31I think fear, fear comes from Satan and to cast it out quickly, fear doesn't come from the Lord.
- 8:37So it's interesting that it would be, you know, in the scripture that immediately he would have been tempted with fear from the adversary instead of the strength of the Lord from whom he was, you know, standing in his
- 8:51presence.
- 8:52So I think it's good for us to remember that we need to stand in the presence of the Lord and gain all of the faith and the strength that we need from him and in his presence to remember
- 9:03who we are, to be able to face any of those fears that might come from the adversary, which is a temptation.
- 9:11Yeah, well, and I think it kind of goes back to that.
- 9:14You've heard the parable of.
- 9:17It's a Native American parable about the two wolves and that they're constantly battling each other.
- 9:22And the grandchild asks his grandfather, well, which one wins this battle in that they're constantly battling for me?
- 9:29And the grandfather wisely says, whichever one you feed.
- 9:34And so that becomes something that we need to remind ourselves.
- 9:38If we want to conquer the fear that holds us back from stepping into whatever divine calling God is placing on our hearts, then we need to feed our faith and not feed the fear.
- 9:53And I'm not saying you're not going to feel fear, because, hello, it's.
- 9:57It's part of the process.
- 9:58When God places something on your heart, it's scary to step up and step out and write a book or start a podcast or blog or speak or whatever it is he's.
- 10:08He's calling you to do.
- 10:10It's hard to step up and do that.
- 10:12But at the same time, if you feed the faith, God is going to open the right doors.
- 10:19If you feed the fear, you're going to stay stuck.
- 10:21And sometimes there's other things that keep us stuck.
- 10:24You know, sometimes we have to overcome some past trauma, so we've got a journal about it or talk to a counselor about it so that we can move forward.
- 10:35Because there are a lot of things that can hold us stuck in fear.
- 10:40And so it requires work.
- 10:42It requires work to move forward.
- 10:45And so sometimes you have to kind of.
- 10:48It's like stepping through these, almost a minefield.
- 10:52You kind of have to figure out, okay, how do I navigate this?
- 10:55But the good thing is God knows.
- 10:57God knows the perfect path for each of us, and he'll inspire us what to do.
- 11:01Well, and there's that saying that where your mind goes, your energy flows.
- 11:05And so if you're putting a lot of your energy and time and effort into fear and.
- 11:11And those fears, they're going to definitely hold you back.
- 11:14But if you put your mind and effort into.
- 11:17I may be scared, but I'm going to try and have faith that the Lord will bless me and put my.
- 11:21My energy there.
- 11:24You're going to see the feedback.
- 11:26You're gonna find.
- 11:27You're gonna find that you're strengthened and uplifted through the.
- 11:30Even if you don't know what you're doing right, even if you have no clue exactly what you're doing, but you keep putting.
- 11:37Putting energy into.
- 11:39This is what I'm creating, and I'm trying to create, and I'm going to have faith in God as I create this and that.
- 11:44He's going to help me every step of the way and keep him at the forefront.
- 11:49You'll get there.
- 11:51I think the theme for today is forward with faith.
- 11:53You know that no matter what obstacles come our way, that we're going to move forward with faith and we're going to keep pressing forward and not let fear stop us.
- 12:04We're not going to let fear, the adversaries, slow us down.
- 12:06And if we get distracted, you know what?
- 12:09Guess what?
- 12:09You're normal.
- 12:12You're normal.
- 12:12If you get distracted and just realize that God is with us.
- 12:16He knows how long this process is going to take for us because he knows us perfectly and individually.
- 12:21So don't get discouraged with yourself.
- 12:24Work with him through the process and it will all turn out all right in the end.
- 12:31Thanks for tuning in to the Arise Women of God Podcast, brought to you by by Women warriors of Light.
- 12:37If you're feeling unsure how to move forward in your calling or just tired of doing it alone, visit womenwarriorsoflight.com you'll find resources, accountability, and a community of women who get it.
- 12:52Sometimes the calling feels bigger than you.
- 12:55That's when you need steady reminders of the powerful God who called you.
- 13:00Subscribe.
- 13:00Subscribe now for weekly inspiration and the courage to keep going.
- 13:05Because with him, nothing is impossible.
- 13:09And you're not the only one God is calling that friend on your heart right now.
- 13:13Share this episode with her.
- 13:15Your small act of obedience could be the breakthrough she's been praying for.
- 13:20Until next time.
- 13:22May you arise, walk God's way, and stand God strong.