A Reminder For When You're Afraid To Follow God's Lead

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. - Psalm 37:5

This week is a really exciting week because, in a matter of days, I’m going to be releasing my brand new devotional - For My Single Friend: A 30-Day Devotional.

I’ve been working on this devotional for SO LONG, and I’m so excited to finally release it. But if I’m being honest, I haven’t always felt so excited about this book.

There were quite a few days, weeks, maybe even months when I was terrified to release this devotional. The fear seemed to hit me out of nowhere, and all of these doubts and insecurities started to rise to the surface.

What are people going to think about the book?

Are they going to like it? What if they don’t?

What if this ends up being a huge bust?

What if I wasted all this time and effort, and it’s all for nothing?

What it’s not good enough? What if I overlooked mistakes?

What if I fail?

These were just a few of the many questions that circled in my head when I started to worry about releasing this devotional.

I talked to my counselor a lot about these fears and doubts over the last several months. Each time we talked about it, she let me process what I was feeling and empathized with me that this was a big step to take as a writer, but she also made a point to reassure me of what was true.

The Lord created me with a gift to write. And if He put this message on my heart, and He led me to write this book, then my only job is to obey Him and release it.

It wasn’t my job to manage other people’s opinions or expectations of the book. It wasn’t my job to determine what was succeeding and what was failing. That was all up to Him. My job was obedience. His job was everything else.

I’ve thought about my counselor’s words a lot recently as the release date of the devotional gets closer. And the more I dwell on her wise reminders, the more at peace I feel.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that the Lord’s hand is in this. That’s where my confidence needs to rest as I take this big, exciting, and, yes, even scary step to release this book to the world.

And friend, if the Lord is leading you to take a big, exciting, scary step too, I hope this serves as a reminder that you can have full confidence in Him.

I know how terrifying it can be when it seems like the Lord is leading you down a path that is filled with questions, doubts, and what-ifs. I know how the insecurity can become so overwhelming that all you want to do is crawl back into your comfort zone and never come back out.

But let me remind you of what my counselor reminded me: your job is obedience. God’s job is everything else.

I pray you find some comfort and some peace in that truth today. The Lord’s got you. He's trustworthy. He’s faithful. And He’s good. So let’s choose to rest in that together.