Are You Waiting on God… or Stuck in Fear? How to Move Forward in Faith

Hey.

Hey, beautiful friends.

And welcome back to Faithfield.

Woman.

Today we're going to talk about is your indecision or your waiting actually fear dressed up as faith?

If I'm being honest, I've absolutely been in this place more times than I'd like to admit.

But we're going to dig into why sometimes we say we're waiting on God, we're waiting on his timing, when really it's that we are, are staying in the same spot when he's already given us the idea or the direction.

We're going to talk about why that happens and how can we know if this is a waiting season that God wants us, wants to use us in right now, where we're at, or has he already commanded us, has he already told us to do something?

And we are just afraid?

And so we're going to talk about that today and we're going to talk about what happened to the Israelites when they went through the wilderness and why they ended up there for 40 years.

Welcome to Faith Fueled Living, the podcast that equips you to live well spiritually, emotionally, physically and purposefully.

Each week we'll dive into conversations and biblical truths to help you strengthen your faith, pursue meaningful work, care for your whole self, and live in line with what matters most.

Okay, we're going to start off with an example in the Bible, and it's this.

We are told that the Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years.

But in numbers it explains to us that, and it's actually numbers 13 and 14 that basically God told them to go, right?

They start their journey first.

They sent spies over to Canaan to kind of look at where they're headed.

And some of the spies come back and say, ah, you know, there's, there's giants, there's all these things.

And the people, the Israelites traveling became afraid.

And they, they didn't, basically, they didn't listen to God that he took them to this wilderness.

And it says in scripture it was an 11 day journey through the wilderness to get to the other side.

So they, they took the journey, but they stopped before they got to the place God was taking them because of fear, because they were afraid.

Afraid.

They were afraid of what was going to be in this place that God was leading them.

So God told them go right, like it was his timing.

But the Israelites were afraid.

They were afraid to move.

And so they allowed their fear to keep them from choosing the other place.

For 40 years, they stayed stuck there because of their fear.

And so I read a really Good book.

Post by unfold the scripture this week.

And basically it's talking about the story.

And it explained that this wasn't God's timing for them to stay stuck in the wilderness, but that they needed to act right.

They had to keep going to get into Canaan.

And so basically they go on to say, God gives wisdom and direction, but we have to walk the path, right?

We have to get to where he's taking us.

And so, you know, here's the thing.

Sometimes we're called to wait to stay because we're stationed.

And sometimes we.

We're going to be.

I'm sorry.

And we're going to be used in that place.

So sometimes it feels like waiting.

It feels like a slow season of growth.

But God is always trying to work in us.

He might be trying to change our heart, our perception.

He might be trying to change bitterness within us or a frustration in a situation where we still have purpose in that place, whether it's in our vocation, our job, whether it's a conversation we're having with someone.

But in other words, we can still be used no matter where.

Where we're at.

And often the.

We are going to walk through a waiting season, right.

Or a season that doesn't seem like anything's happening, but it is, right.

God is working.

But there's other times where God already has given us right direction.

He's given us the wisdom.

And a question that's asked is, is there something God has made clear?

A direction, a conversation.

Yeah, A next step that you're.

You've been called.

I'm sorry?

That you're.

You've been calling.

Not yet.

Like, it's not time yet.

Or maybe you're saying it's.

It must not be God's timing yet, and that temporary has become permanent.

And here's the thing that I like that unfold the scripture says is what is the.

I'm sorry I said, what is the cost of a decision you haven't made?

And unfold.

The scripture says it's the cost of a decision that never got made.

And so in other words, what is it that we are stuck?

Where is it we're stuck?

Where are we letting fear stop us?

Where are we allowing indecision to actually be the decision?

Because indecision isn't just waiting on God.

It isn't surrendering.

It's.

It's choosing to stay where we're at and not take a step on the path.

And so I don't know about you, but this.

This kind of hit me because we have done this.

For instance, there's times where I've tested, right, something that I was going to put out, you know, on my website, a workbook or maybe a workshop or some sort of offer.

And if immediately I didn't get the response I wanted, instead of keeping, instead of moving it forward to continue to put it out there, to keep refining, I would say, oh, I guess this isn't it, and I would stop.

But was that God saying stop and this isn't right?

Or was it me being afraid?

Was it me being afraid?

You know what?

This isn't it.

Someone doesn't want this and then stopping.

But I can tell you this, it cost me a lot.

And I don't mean to financially.

I mean, it cost me a lot because it created indecision in me, right?

Questioning, well, was the thing I was just working on, was that not the thing, right?

Was that not the thing someone needed?

Was that not the thing that I felt like God was kind of calling me to work on?

And so I have been in this place, and it's not.

Sometimes I think we are unaware that we're doing it until we read something or we hear someone else say it.

And then it's like a light has been shined or shown onto the thing that we're not moving on, the place where we're not taking action, the place that we have allowed to become a permanent not yet or a permanent indecision, we're kind of avoiding it, right?

The thing, either decision, having the conversation, moving, taking a step out of faith.

So my first question to myself and you is, where is it that I've allowed fear to creep in, even though I said it wasn't fear that is keeping me from the thing God wants me to have?

And as I was looking at this, another thing I'd written down that I wanted to share at some point on the podcast was about has.

Sometimes we pray, right?

We pray to God, like, oh, you know, God, give me an opportunity.

God, you know, increase my finances, provide, you know, in a bigger way.

But I read something that really, you know, gave me pause.

And I've talked about this before in the podcast, but the idea that the widowed woman, right, who was her husband, left or when he passed, she was in debt and she didn't know how she was going to pay off her debt or just even support her, her family.

And then basically scripture goes on to tell us that the questions asked, what's already in your house?

And then it turns out that she has oil.

And so then she's told to go and get every bottle.

Right.

Or container to fill up with oil.

And she even asks neighbors and things, well, well, she's then able to actually offer that oil, to sell it, to pay off her debt and to provide.

But the question is, is there something?

Has God given us already?

A thought, a concept, an idea, a framework?

And that's the thing he's given us to provide.

Right?

To give us purpose, to give us opportunity.

Right?

Right.

To have more finances, to do more.

So in other words, the opportunity is normally in the thing he gives us.

It's not necessarily that he's just gonna put a, you know, a ton of money in our bank account.

He's expecting us to take the idea or the thought or the concept, the download and do something with it.

Right.

He's expecting, once again, for us to take action, to not wait on him.

Only Dan Rommer shares this.

He says, the construction is your assignment.

The blueprint is his gift.

And he basically says, what idea has God put in your mind that you keep dismissing?

What download have you been ignoring because it didn't look like money?

That is what we have to act on.

So much like the story of the widow with the oil, what is the skill we've been dismissing?

What's a story we've been sitting on?

Because often it's right in front of us.

We've already been given the gift by God to create the opportunity or to create the income.

We have to ask ourselves, is this like the Israelites who spent 40 years in the wilderness on a journey that was only going to take them 11 days?

Are we staying in a space of indecision, a space of fear?

Which maybe you don't call it fear, but it's the unwillingness to be brave or bold, to try something, to say, you know what, I would love to do something with this idea, or I have this skill.

And people do ask me about helping them all the time with this.

Is there something more to it?

I have some great episodes coming out later this month.

One of them is with Pastor Jason Laird.

And we talk about basically, a framework that he talks about.

But he says basically that there's three things on us, and it's our outlook, right?

It's our output, which is our effort, our movement, right?

Taking a step, being brave, and then it's our obedience to God, but it's God who's in the business of outcomes.

And so that's a great episode.

I can't wait to share that with you.

He also shares this, that hope and faith is not about outcomes, it's about outlook.

Because if we put our hope and our faith in God, then we need to be obedient and we need to have an output, and then it's up to God as to what the outcome is.

Okay.

And then another interview I'll be sharing soon is with Mitch Matthews, who is the podcast host of Dream Think do, and he's also elite success coach.

And that's a great episode because we talk about why it's hard for people to define and make time and then write down and go after their dreams, which you might also call your ambitions or the things that God's put on your heart to go after.

And so that's a really great episode, too, that's coming out this month.

But.

But all of these things have this common thread, which is God will give us, as I said earlier, wisdom.

He will give us direction, but then he wants us to step out of faith and show him that we trust him.

Right?

We have to put our trust in him and we have to have faith in him that if we act, if we move, he will then show up.

Right?

Because if it's.

If we are partnered with him and if it's something that he is calling us into, he will be there with us.

Right?

And so it does not mean it will be.

Every step will be easy, but it does mean that we will be able, right, to get to the land of milk and honey, if you will.

In other words, we will be provided for.

We will be able to use everything we go through.

And remember, sometimes being faithful or trying an idea out, or coming up with something, building something, sometimes that may not look like a success, either initially or for a long time, but we learn in each new experience.

We learn in each new offer, and we learn each new conversation.

Actually, I also talked to Jason Laird about this.

He shared in one of his sermons that for 16 years he was in ministry, but he hadn't planted a church.

And he felt the call on his life from God 16 years prior to.

To church plan.

And so he said, and I asked him about that, and he said, yeah, of course I was frustrated at times.

And of course I thought, you know, why God is this taking, right, this dream I've had, this desire you put on my heart, why is it taking so long?

And of course, after some more years, and then he became.

He started planting actual churches, right?

And becoming the pastor of those churches.

He said, well, hindsight is 20 20, right?

He said, well, yeah, God was still shaping me, informing me.

He was refining me.

So That I was the person, the pastor I needed to be in order to actually have the fortitude, the, the depth, right, and the ability to navigate everything that comes with being the lead pastor, with starting a church, you know, planting churches.

And so that's just a good reminder for all of us that sometimes we do have something put on our heart and it takes a long time for us to make it happen.

That can be because God is still working on us and in us, yet he's still forming us to have the character, the integrity and the heart and the obedience to show up for that next assignment.

But there's other times where God's called us and we aren't either creating output, right, taking action.

We don't have the right outlook, or we aren't obedient.

And Mark Batterson talks about this often, which is, I think now he's written at least 25 books.

He's a pastor in D.C. but his first book, he said, I can't remember if he said it took him 10 years or maybe it was longer than that before he actually wrote it, but he knew he wanted to write a book.

But when he finally decided to stop, just saying one day, and he put a goal to that dream, he said, you know what?

I think it was something like this before my birthday, in the next, I think it was 40 days, I'm going to write this manuscript.

Now.

He wasn't trying to say I'm going to make this perfect, you know, anything like that.

He just said, I'm going to be obedient through the next 40 days to write every day and finish this first book.

Well, of course this first book isn't going to be as polished as all the other books, right?

Because every book he's written, he's become better his process, better at his research, better his writing and all of those things.

But the point here is how many of us are sitting on something because we haven't put one of the frameworks that Jason Laird talks about in place.

Either we're not being obedient with our time, we're not committing to a goal and a deadline, or we're not taking action.

We're just, it's a someday or now's not the right time.

But is that true or is that our excuse?

And actually, in the other conversation that I said that I'll share later this month with Mitch Matthews, he actually says, he tells people all the time, if, look, maybe you have a full time job, you're, you're really busy.

But what about committing 15 minutes a day to this thing, a new experience, this new idea, writing the book, whatever the project is, or this thing on your heart.

And I think 15 minutes a day for the entire year.

He.

I thought he said 60 some hours, but I think it's like 90 hours is how much time you'd have towards that effort.

I mean, imagine if you spent that much time on something in a year.

And I get it, 15 minutes isn't a lot of time in a day, but it adds up.

And so my next question to myself and you is this.

What is it that I want to commit to doing?

I want to get serious about.

I want to create the space in a new practice to do something every day that will matter.

In other words, matter beyond what I'm already doing.

So, yes, most of us are doing things that matter, right?

We're raising our families, we're trying to be a good spouse.

Maybe we're deepening our faith, we're doing work that matters.

But there's often time in our day where we're either wasting it or maybe we're not using it to the best of our ability, but we know we have this desire in our heart to do something else.

That's what I'm talking about.

Now listen, this can be something small like, I want to read more, right?

I want to.

I want to read more books that matter.

And I. I'm scrolling my phone more than I wish I was.

And just a little caveat here.

I had to delete social media off my phone.

I shouldn't say I had to.

I wanted to.

So I was.

Facebook's been off my phone off and on for the most part for a year or two.

But Instagram, I really like Instagram.

I see a lot of great content there that I like.

Faith, content, health, wellness, lots of things.

But it still becomes a time suck.

So I was wasting time on Instagram, so I had to remove it from my phone.

Now I still will go on Instagram on my computer, but it's harder to use on your computer.

I will close the browser tab after I go on for just a little bit, and then I'm doing it a lot less.

So for me, I had to do that.

And I'm trying to fill in a little bit of that time with projects I want to be working on.

Okay, so back to the idea.

Maybe for you, it's that you.

Do you want to write down something to share with your family one day, right?

Like, write down the stories because you don't want to forget them or you don't want to forget the details.

Maybe you've been wanting to put together a guide or a workbook.

Maybe you want to perfect a recipe that you, your friends love.

But you think, you know what, maybe one day I could offer this, right, Just on the side, just maybe near the holidays, whatever the thing is.

Or maybe you have a big dream or goal.

What could you do a little bit towards it each day?

That could be doing research, it could be writing, it could be learning, right, A craft.

Maybe you want to learn a new language because you have this dream to go to another country in a year or two.

So you want to know how to speak some of the language, whatever it is.

The point is, let's not wait.

Let's have an output, right?

So take that action.

Let's have the right outlook that our life matters, our time matters, that we can be intentional with the life we're creating.

We can be intentional with the legacy we're creating.

We should be doing what God is calling us to do.

Even if it feels scary or even if we don't feel like we're brave enough to do it right now, or we don't feel like we have what we need.

And then we have to be obedient, right, with our time.

We have to be obedient with our routines.

One of the things I talk about in an upcoming episode is we all have, we could all commit to a little more time to spend deepening our faith.

And there's lots of great apps that help us do that.

And so Jason mentioned one that we'll share in a couple weeks called Lecto 365.

But it's just in another app that helps us spend 10 minutes a day deepening our faith by learning a little bit more and spending that time with God and in his word, with, in.

In a time of silence, right?

In reflection and prayer.

And so my point is, is maybe for you it's that you just want to have a 10 minute window where you.

I don't just read a devotional, but you want to, you want to go deeper into the word.

And so that is an amazing goal to start with.

So anyways, so today, like I said, I just wanted to bring up a couple things which is, are we, are we acting the same way the Israelites were, where we let fear of that unknown?

Or oh my gosh, this thing, the giants in the other things they saw, what's our giant?

In other words, what's keeping us from this other place, what's keeping us from the future that we feel this stirring towards, but we're holding our own selves back.

I think it's so important to ask ourselves that.

And then the next thing is, did God already give us the download?

Did he give us the idea, the concept?

Did he already give us the skill or the gift?

But we're sitting on it because we're either afraid to act, we're afraid to step out into the uncertainty, or are we just not doing the things that Jason says we need to do, right?

Have the right outlook, have the right output, and have obedience and let God worry about the rest.

Let God worry about the outcomes.

Two things there.

One, I say this sometimes my job is to be faithful and do the podcast, to have the conversations, to show up, to create the content.

My job is not to hyper focus on the numbers, right?

Like, how many people listen to this episode?

How many downloads did I get?

Yes, of course I hope and want the show and the episodes to matter and for people to listen, and they do.

But like, if I start comparing my size of my show to maybe somebody that's been doing this for 10 plus years or already has five books out, or pastors a huge, you know, mega church, in other words, I'm going to be comparing myself and then I lose focus of what God's calling me to do personally.

And so I just have to be obedient.

I have to do the work, right, keep being faithful to do it, be consistent, and then let God worry about the outcomes, or let me let God worry about the outcome.

So that's just an example from my own life.

And the last thing that I wanted to share is, you know, are we being honest, right?

Are we being honest about where we're at and that maybe we are actually in the wilderness, but maybe it's from.

Maybe we're there because of our own doing, not because God is waiting to refine us.

Like I said, we can also go through those seasons, but I think we have to have the wisdom.

We have to go to him and kind of ask him.

We also have to look inside ourselves and be really honest about am I holding myself back?

Right?

Is my.

Am I allowing my circumstances?

Or when I'm afraid is across the wilderness, am I letting that hold me back?

Or is it actually God keeping me where I'm at, where I'm at because he actually still wants to use me here in this time, which I could argue he don't.

He wants to do both, right?

Like, even if we aren't moving yet, he still can use us.

But sometimes we stay where we're at longer than we're supposed to because of us, not God.

I'd love to encourage you beyond the podcast.

If you head over to KristinFitch.com, you can grab my Create a life you love journaling workbook and list.

And it's completely free and it's basically 25 pages that let you really think about when you have a little time each week to write down.

What are your values and your priorities?

What's the vision you have for yourself?

What are your dreams and desires?

What are some of the things that you want to experience in the coming months or years?

What are you praying for?

What is it that you really enjoy?

What were some things you wanted to be when you were growing up?

And then there's blank lists.

You can make your own lists.

There's also gratitude and prayer page pages and blank reflections pages.

But the whole idea of this is so similar to what I talked about today, which is when we make space and we know what it is that God's calling us into, when we are clear about the life we want, know what we want for our lives, what we're doing with our time, then we can step out of fear and we can actually start taking action.

We can get from the wilderness into the next place.

And so you can grab that.

It's@kristenfitch.com Go to my workbooks page and scroll down and you will also then get my Faith Friday emails.

I don't send them every week, but I send them regularly to encourage you and inspire you and uplift you in your life and as you step into everything that God has and wants for you.

So I can't wait for you to grab that and just dig in a little bit more.

Spend a little time on getting to know yourself and what's holding you back and what it is you want to go after.

And what are those dreams God's put on your heart?

So definitely go and check that out.

If you enjoyed today's episode.

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