I have several journals in my house and ones that travel with me on the go. God’s Words are life to me! His Voice is so creative I don’t want to forget what He has said. The front cover of the journal in my purse reads, “Take the Risk.” Over the last 5 years I have come to see that life requires RISK and how much I have come alive in the taking of RISKS.
The Lord has blessed me with a husband who is spontaneous, adventurous, and is willing to take risks…many times over. I fell in love with this wild man who exudes the adventuresome heart of God. In fact, as I write this blog post he is in the Middle East on a business trip. My man is an entrepreneur at heart, God has birthed it into him, and I marvel at the way he steps into new things with boldness and confidence. I learn a lot from watching him live life and from partnering in life together!
Being married to this wild, adventuresome man has brought out parts of myself that I didn’t know were there, and that I haven’t always liked to see. Marriage is like that, isn’t it?! We fall in love with these amazing aspects of our spouses that are so thrilling and then come to realize that God uses the other person almost like sandpaper to mature us, to grow us in deeper ways, and to offer new ways of thinking and doing life. Why? So we can experience more freedom!
To be willing to risk and to take risks whatever that is, can be scary. But did you know that it actually allows us to dive deeper into intimacy and oneness with God? God doesn’t want our lives to be safe, comfortable and risk free. Read that line again. He doesn’t want us to live lives that are safe, comfortable, and risk free! In taking the risks He has for us we find our security, our comfort, our peace in who HE is; not in our circumstances, our surroundings or even ourselves remaining the same.
When we come to faith in Jesus Christ we actually die, not physically but to our old way of living, our sinful nature dies and we become new creations. Jesus Christ lives out His life, His purposes, His faith, His strength in us and through us by the power of His Spirit. (Galatians 2:20) We cannot do life on our own, we were never designed to do so. In Him we live and move and have our being. (Acts 17:28) Complete dependency on Him and nothing else. Risk is central to a relationship with God…laying down anything that does not line up with our identity as SONS and DAUGHTERS of the Most High God. To risk with Jesus, is to experience greater intimacy and union with God.
Allow me to share a personal example. We had been in our lovely home in the new land that God had led us to for three years, it was the longest time we had stayed in one place in our married life. We loved the scenery, the slower paced life, we loved the community and the people in our little village. Having lived somewhat like that of nomads, life finely felt settled. It felt like home. I was loving it. One night my husband shared with me that God had told him it was time to sell our home, and that God had a new home for our family. He continued to share how it was time to let go of the current one. I wasn’t thrilled, to say the least.
I told the Lord, “You will have to change my heart and get me on the same page as You, if You want us to move.” Well, He did just that! I could see that a new home for us wasn’t about bigger, it wasn’t about better, it wasn’t that I wasn’t grateful for what He had given us by moving on. Rather, it was about continuing to step into the dreams He had for us! It was time to move! It was time to go with God into the way He wanted us to go.
This has not been the only risk I’ve taken. But shortly before having been told it was time to move, God had led me to pray a prayer of deeper surrender. In that prayer, one of the things I prayed was, “You can do anything in me and through me. Anything.” He has been faithful in taking me up on this offer; as scary and unpredictable as it can feel. In taking risks, God is stripping me of all that I would hold onto. Extra security measures. Backup plans. He says to lay it all down. He wants to be my EVERYTHING!
My husband and I have believed God to be our Provider. He would be the One to bring the dream to reality. The dream itself was one, that we could not bring to fruition ourselves. And in those moments when I question whether He will come through; I am reminded of past risks I’ve taken. He has always been faithful and will continue to be faithful! He is a God who is able to be counted on! Risking with God has allowed me to come alive. It has been a gift that I would never turn back now! I don’t have a plan b, a backup plan, or anything to fall back on…it’s all HIM.
Risk is a popular word these days in our culture. It is celebrated to be risky. It is welcome to be daring. Yet, there is a distinct difference in our motivation for risk as believers in Jesus Christ. When God calls us to do something risky, we depend upon Him. Not on how we will appear to other people, how good we will look, and how it will make us feel. I love how Jennie Allen puts it in her book, Anything, she says, “Without the Spirit of God to lead our anything’s, we will only be do-gooders with our own agenda. And they fizzle.” (Allen, pg. 121) God calls us to risk with Him, to take steps of faith in Him, to leap with Him, to jump with Him in order that HE may be glorified. In order that the purposes and plans HE has for us will be accomplished.
Friends, what is God asking you to risk? Perhaps you have been on the sidelines of who God is and you think you know a lot about Him, but it’s time to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ and experience Him for yourself? Perhaps God wants you to be less concerned about pleasing other people? Perhaps you need to take the risk to believe that God is a good Provider and He knows how to take care of you? Perhaps you need to take the leap with God in living more boldly and confidently in who He has created you to be? Whatever that risk is for you…do it in Jesus, do it in His strength, do it in His timing, do it His way and watch yourself come to live more freely and without abandon! It’s not always easy, but it is always good for us!
Do you need more encouragement to take the risk? I’d love to offer you some key verses that have been helpful for me! Click this link to sign up for my monthly newsletter. After subscribing, a link to this freebie will be sent to you by email.
