I remember when I got serious about praying to overcome fear, I was afraid to pray about it. How about that for irony? I wanted to overcome fear, but I was afraid to overcome fear.

Go figure.

It took some time to identify what I was dealing with; fear can disguise itself in so many ways. But when I finally realized I was dealing with deeper levels of fear, I began to ask God to help me overcome. He started me on a long journey, one with tales of glory and displays of disaster, and I wasn’t very excited about it, to be honest. He’s been faithful to make me face things that were hard and forced me to be brave in ways I never thought I could. And, frankly, at times I would go through something really scary and never feel one ounce of bravery.

As I was thinking about my different experiences, I began to see a pattern.

Have you ever noticed when facing fear, and making gallant strides to overcome it, you never quite feel like you’re strong enough or brave enough to handle the next scary that’s coming your way? It always seems like the fear is a little bigger than your faith. Once you make it to the other side, you feel weak and inadequate, but you did it.

Rejoice!

And then something bigger and scarier comes along and you’re sure, this one’s going to be the one to destroy you, you’ll never make it through.

But, by God‘s grace, you do.

One day you look back and realize the fears you’re facing now are enormous in comparison to the ones that used to leave you feeling faint. Unless you’re keeping record and paying attention, you’ll never see your progress.

I guess that’s my point today.

Remember where you came from.

Remember all that God has brought you through.

Testify to his goodness.

Be thankful for the strength and character grown in the hard places.

Then when the next giant, scary thing looms over and threatens to take you out, you can remind the circumstance and yourself, that God has always seen you through and he’ll do it again.

He’s always gonna walk us into harder to make us stronger; our job is to remember.

He is BIGGER.