What If?

It only takes two little words to derail forward motion, "What if?"  You've finally decided that launch that business that you have dreamed about for years but you pull back thinking, "What if I can't establish a strong enough customer base or what if the market changes suddenly or what if I get hurt?"  There are so many things that must go right to launch a business but just one missing piece can stop it dead in its tracks.  What if?

You've always wanted children and now you feel ready but you  wonder, "What if I lose my job or my child is born with a disability or my spouse gets really sick?  What if?"  Your job is going no where, you know that you need to go back to school in order to make a career change but what if you can't make the grade, what if you can't get enough funding to finish, what if things at home make it necessary to drop out?  What if?"

It is not the what was and rarely the what is that keeps us from making a change or accepting a new challenge, it is almost always the what if that does us in, that holds us back, that keeps us down.  We have dealt with the what was already and we are dealing with the what is right now, but that what if, that we have not yet faced, that is an unknown, that we will require we step out in faith.  Exactly!

No one has experience in doing something they've never done before.  I find it amusing when I hear people say things like, "I can't teach a Bible class, I've never done that before."  Really?  You mean you don't have experience in something you're being asked to do for the first time?  How much experience do you think the current teacher had before he/she accepted challenge for the first time?

How much experience do first time parents have going in?  Several years back, I started an insurance agency.  Did you know that I didn't have any experience in starting up an insurance business?  Can you believe that I didn't have a guaranteed customer base, that I didn't have any assurance I would make it in the insurance business?  I didn't have one customer or a single guarantee of business worthiness before I began.  I had to step out on faith, faith in God, faith in the outcome of hard work and determination, faith in doing what I had never done before.

The foundation to a faith that overcomes "What if?" is trusting in God to ultimately be in control our your life.  There is little fear of what the future might hold if you know Who holds your future.  Despite future trends or market downturns or physical maladies, God can "work all things to the good of those who love him" (Rom 8:28).  And, he promises, "seek first the kingdom of God and all these things (necessities of life) will be added to you as well" (Matt 6:33).

So, here's the deal.  Don't allow the what ifs to hold you down.  Instead, lay your life before God, seek his will in your life, listen to his calling, step out in faith in his faithfulness.  Life doesn't come with guarantees but God guarantees he will be with you always: "I will never leave you as orphans (Jn 14:18).  Don't hold back in fear, wondering what if, step out in faith when you hear God calling.  Jus' Say'n.