Grace for My Home | Christian Women, Growing in Faith, Spirit-Led, Hearing from God, Sowing Truth

What's Your Motivation? Choosing Faith Over Fear

• Audrey McCracken | Mom Encourager • Season 2 • Episode 70

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Fear and Faith are both powerful motivators.  If we can determine which one is driving our decisions, we can move from reacting in fear to walking by faith.  

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Audrey McCracken:

Hello friends, welcome back to Grace for My Home. I hope that you are doing well. I hope that you are already and have all of your Christmas presents purchased and wrapped and under the tree. That would just be wonderful. And I have not gotten all of my presents wrapped and under the Christmas tree. I have barely bought any of my presents. To be honest with you. I made a major purchase last night for one of my kids and the others. They are at that age when they want to pick out the things that they want. They really don't want to be surprised, and that's fine with me, that's easier for me, but I miss the whole excitement of surprises under the tree. But to be honest with you, I haven't really had time to put into it. So it all works out for the best.

Audrey McCracken:

We are getting ready for Christmas. My husband's family they're going to come over this Sunday, his three brothers and their wives and kids and my mother-in-law will come here on Sunday to our home and we'll have Christmas together, and then on Christmas day my mom will come here and spend the day with us, and so we were really pretty laid back when it comes to Christmas day. We tried to just to enjoy each other and not make it stressful but fun, but there's always a certain amount of stress that goes with it, right? I mean, it's a lot going on, it's a busy season, but the goal right the goal is to enjoy Christ, is to remember why we're doing all this, and it really can very quickly. The goal, the purpose of Christmas can get lost in all of the busyness. And I know I'm preaching to the choir, I'm preaching to a bunch of moms that are at the heart of their homes and trying to make things meaningful and also make things workable. And it's a lot. I pray that God would give you and me grace during this season to keep our eyes on him. Amen.

Audrey McCracken:

I wanted to talk with you this week about what is your motivation and just kind of ask you that question. You know what is your motivation? Because sometimes we don't have time to think about that. Sometimes we're just in the thick of it and we've just got to do the things right, we just got to do the next thing and we don't have time to really sit around and ask all these rhetorical questions. Like you know what is my motivation? You know there's dishes to wash, there are diapers to change, there are meals to fix. We don't have time to sit around and think about these things, but whenever possible, it's nice to be able to just push back and get a minute and say you know, why am I doing these things? What, what? Really? Why am I doing these things? And you may be doing all of the right things, but why are you doing them? Is it an important question? Sometimes it's not just what, but why, and that's what's been on my heart this week, and I wanted to just share some thoughts with you and hopefully encourage you during this busy time as to why, why are we doing these things? What's the point?

Audrey McCracken:

God has given us? One of the greatest gifts that he has given us is a free will. He did not make us like any other thing or creature in creation. He made us in his image and he gave us the ability to choose for ourselves, and that's very powerful. You know, he gave us such a complete gift of free will that we are freely able to reject him. We're freely able not to choose him, not to love him, not to serve him, not to even believe in him, if we so choose. You know that's pretty dangerous, right? That was pretty dangerous on his end right To give us something that we could even turn around and use against him. And I just I think sometimes we don't appreciate that gift. At least I don't appreciate that gift of free will.

Audrey McCracken:

And when we're in busy times and when we have a lot of responsibilities and people look into us, we can just it's easy to go with the crowd, it's easy to go with what's next and, you know, not even think about what we're doing or why we're doing it. And we don't even need that free will, right? Who needs that? We just, we know what comes next, we know what's expected, and lately the Lord has just been reminding me that so many of the things that I feel like are not my choices, right, these are just things that have to be done. That you know. I'm making a lot of choices in there too, and one of the questions that I always come back to is why am I making these choices? What is my motivation? And, like I said to start with, we can many times we can do the right things, but not even do what be doing them out of the right motivations? And I often find myself betwixt and between two different sides the side of faith and the side of fear. You know, fear is a motivator. It can motivate us to do a lot of things, and sometimes they're good things, sometimes they're the things we're supposed to be doing. But faith is also a motivator and faith can inspire us and encourage us to do many of those same things. But when faith is our motivator, those things are a lot more enjoyable and they seem to happen a lot easier, because we're doing them by grace. We're not doing them in our own strength. We're not doing them because we're afraid of what's going to happen if we don't do them. We are able to do them out of love.

Audrey McCracken:

It says in Galatians 5-6, for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor un-circumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. And that word they are working. The Greek word for that word is energy, and you can hear our word energy in that, and it means to be at work, to work, to do, to energize, and so faith is energized by love. It says, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision or uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. So faith is energized through love, and and as the Lord deals in our heart, as he works in our lives, you know it says that the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts in Christ Jesus. As he gives us his love for people, his love for our family, his love for him, then he gives us the energy, he gives us the motivation to obey him. You know, jesus said if you love me, you'll obey my commandments.

Audrey McCracken:

And and yes, there is a fear of God. There is a healthy fear of God, and I Honestly don't think there's enough of it in the world today. I think that there is an all in fearing and loving God and seeing him as the all-powerful one, as the judge of all, as the one who one day we will stand before and give account of our entire life. But at the same time, he is the loving one. He is the one who it says of in John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only Begotten Son that whoever would believe in him would not perish. He does not want us to perish, but have eternal, everlasting life, and so he is a giver and he gives to us out of love and he redeems us with his own blood. And so I I just want to talk with you today about walking by faith versus walking by fear.

Audrey McCracken:

Many of you know, if you've been listening to my podcast, that I'm a homeschool mom and I have been for, I guess, 11, 12 years now. My oldest two they're in public school now and that was their choice. They went to public school for high school and we let them make that choice and they're doing great. But when I first started homeschooling them they were in kindergarten. They were kindergarten age and I had this desire in my heart. I don't even know how to explain it. I just I felt in my heart that the Lord was calling me to homeschool my children, which really came out of that field. I'd never had that desire before, but when it came time to start making, you know, enrolling my, enrolling my oldest in kindergarten, I just really felt like I was supposed to homeschool him and I started researching it and just praying about it and and thinking that year before you know what am I going to do here?

Audrey McCracken:

And as I started looking around and seeing different homeschool groups and and homeschool philosophies and techniques and um, I started noticing that there seemed to be a lot of fear and involved in homeschool and you got to understand this was years before covid, right? This is when you know it wasn't as mainstream as it is now, but there just seemed to be, even among christian circles, a lot of fear. Like you know we're. We've got to protect our children from the world. We've got to, you know, not don't let them be indoctrinated in the things of the world. And and I get that, you know, I want to make sure that I'm the biggest influence on my children's lives and I take serious the threats that are out there. But I felt in my heart that the lord Spoke to me during that time as I was praying and seeking his will, that I felt really strong, that he was impressing on me that he wanted me to do this out of faith and not fear and that that makes a difference in how you do something.

Audrey McCracken:

Now, if you're homeschooling and I'm just using homeschooling as an example, this is like my example but if you're homeschooling out of fear, then you're not inspiring, you're just sheltering, right? You're just protecting them from the evil forces, right? You're not showing them the wonders of creation, you're not sharing with them the wonderful things that God has created in this world, which really is the essence of education. Look what God has made. Everything we study is from God. Language is from God. Music is from God, science, it tells us how God set these things up. So when you see, when you have a bigger picture, when you're not running from something, you're not running in fear from something, but you have a vision, you have a vision of what could be, of what should be, then you see things much clearer and things take on a much lighter feel and even a joy. You know it's hard to be fearful and joyful at the same time. It really is. And so that you know I had struggled.

Audrey McCracken:

I had thought about fear versus faith before, but that became a very concrete example for me was our homeschool journey. And sometimes, you know, through our journey, things would happen and I would recognize oh, I'm running on fear. You know I'm not running on faith right now. Right now I'm just afraid. And I'm doing a lot of these things because I'm afraid, not because I'm trusting God.

Audrey McCracken:

So in other areas I started noticing, you know, I'm doing this out of fear, I'm running from something. I'm not running to Jesus, I'm running from something, something from my past or something I'm afraid is gonna happen. And, guys, I think this is just part of being in this world. There are many things in this world that attack our mind, attack our heart, try to steal our peace. And so we're gonna fight. You know, as long as we're in this world and we're not of this world, there are gonna be fights in our minds, in our hearts, in our bodies. But when we can get grounded in why we're here and we can get a vision from the Lord of what he would have us do while we're here, then we can do that, we can go after him, we can be obedient in the things he's called us to do, and there's a lot more joy and purpose in that than just being afraid of the world around us. You know, I think of it like this Faith has a destination. Now, we may not know exactly what that destination is, but a lot of times God will push us off or call us into that destination.

Audrey McCracken:

I think about Abram. You know, when God called him away from his family and he did not tell him where to go, he just said go, get out of here. I'll show you where. But Abram, by faith, he didn't let the. There were many fears that could have kept Abram home. You know the fear of wild animals, the fear of the unknown, the fear of taking your whole family out and you know them starving to death. There were so many fears of just going out into the world where you don't know where you're going. You're just going because God said go. But he had faith. You know he's the father of faith and he did it out of obedience and God took care of him.

Audrey McCracken:

And so many times I see it like that. You know, faith is like God has called us somewhere and we have to have ears tuned into Lord. What would you have me do? What is my assignment right now? Now there's a scripture in Proverbs and it says in Proverbs 29, 18, and I'm reading out of the English standard version it says where there is no prophetic vision, that people cast off restraint, but blessed is he who keeps the law. So where there's no prophetic vision, where we haven't heard Lord, what are you doing, lord? What am I supposed to be about right now? Where are you calling me right now?

Audrey McCracken:

When there's no vision of why we're doing the things we're doing, then we cast off restraint. That means we stop doing the hard things. Why do the hard things if there's no reason, if there's no reward, if we don't see the point in them? Now sometimes we'll do the hard things out of fear. Now I think it's better to do the right things out of fear than to do nothing right. I'd rather do the right things for the wrong reason, but so much better to do the right things out of faith, to do the right things because we're trusting God, because we believe that God has a plan that we believe were about his business, that we're not wondering Aimlessly that it may feel that way sometime, but we're going out in obedience and doing what he's asked of us at this season. You know I don't see the big picture, but I know right now when he's told me to put my hands to work.

Audrey McCracken:

Many years ago I read a, a book to my boys and it was called the spyglass, and I'll try to find that and put that in the show notes if you want to go look it up. But it was a short book and the gist of it was a man Came to this kingdom and to this king and this kingdom, and the kingdom was run down. The walls of the city had fallen, the houses were in shambles, the crops were not producing, the vineyards were all dried up, it was just a sad place. So this man came and he brought this special spyglass to the king and when you look through the spyglass, you didn't see that how things were. You saw how they could be, and so the king took this spyglass around his kingdom and what he saw was a magnificent kingdom. He saw houses that were billed and strengthened, he saw the city walls built back up, he saw the fields full of crops and he saw the vineyards full and he saw the people happy and he saw the markets full and he saw people living well and, and the point was, this is what could be, but you have to make it so. And Every time he looked in the spyglass, that's what the man told him. He said you know, you've seen what could be. Go and make it so.

Audrey McCracken:

And that was so encouraging for me because I thought that's what we need. We need the Lord to show us what could be, what should be, and then, by his grace, we go and make it so. You know, I think about where we're working right now. In the city where we're at. There's a lot of need. That's why we're there, because it's a lot. There's a lot of need there. There's a lot of other cities around that we could have gone into. That we're doing a lot better off economically. We went into a place that they're not doing great economically, but we did that on purpose, because we believe number one, we believe that was the direction the Lord pointed us in. But number two, we believe the Lord has shown us potential. He's shown us what could be, what should be, so we're going to make it so.

Audrey McCracken:

And I think even in our homes Sometimes we can see things around us and it just feels like you ever had one of those days or weeks or months when it just feels like everything around you is yuck. Everywhere you look it's something that's broken down, it's something that's not painted, something that the kids destroyed. You know, it's just like I'm so tired of seeing these things and so many times the Lord will bring back that book to me and say Go and make it so. Go see what could be and put your hands to work and don't live in fear or regret, but live in faith. And I just want to read to you a few things that I wrote down about fear and faith. And I do want to remind you that our faith is motivated by love. It's not faith in our faith, and a lot of times people preach faith and it's like, oh, I got to build up my faith and that's just like a spiritual gymnastics, I don't know how to do that. Faith is motivated by love Love for God and love for other people. You know, when you love God, when he comes into your heart, then you want to please him and faith is that stepping out to please him. But there's a big difference between being motivated by fear and being motivated by faith, and I just want to read off to you a few things that have helped me to determine when I'm walking in fear and when I'm walking in faith. First of all, faith pulls me towards something that I won't, but fear drives me away from something I don't want. No, faith has an expectation for something good. Fear has an expectation for something bad. You know, I think about where Jesus told if you ask for a fish, he's not going to give you a serpent. If you ask for something good, your father's not going to give you something bad. And faith asks believing for good things. Faith produces hope for the future, but fear produces dread.

Audrey McCracken:

The book of Hebrews. Let me just talk to you a minute about the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews was written for the Jewish people, the Hebrews, right, and it was an encouragement for those who were of the covenant, who had become Christian, who were now being tested. You know, they grew up with the promises, they grew up offering the sacrifices, they grew up in the synagogues and the temple and the promises, the covenant promises, were theirs. And now they believe in Christ and they have given up their old life, their old Jewish traditions. They've come into this new covenant in Christ. But they were being persecuted and there was a promise of Christ's return. But they were getting weary, waiting because it didn't seem like he was returning. And so the writer of Hebrews was encouraging them and saying these, all these things that you know, that you love the traditions that you have loved all your life, those were the foreshadowing of Christ and don't give up on him because what you've believed is true.

Audrey McCracken:

And so in verse, in chapter 11, we call that the faith chapter and he and the writer goes through so many men and women of God who lived well. They weren't perfect, but they lived well by faith. It talks about Abel and Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and Rahab, and it goes on and on about all these men and women who believed when it was hard and didn't give up. And then in chapter 12, right after the faith chapter, where he where he has this hall of fame of men and women who have believed in hard times In chapter 12, the first three Verses, this is what he says about Christ. He says, therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us all those people he just talked about in verse 11, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith. Two for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and has set down at the right hand of the throne of God. So he's saying you have all these people as a witness, as an example, and if that wasn't enough, put your eyes now on Jesus, because he is the perfecter of our faith. He is the author and the perfecter of our faith and he is our greatest example.

Audrey McCracken:

It says that, for the joy set before him, he despised the shame of that cross, he endured to the end, until it was over, and then he sat down at the right hand of the Father. See, jesus had a goal. He suffered, he endured hard things, but he didn't do it without a purpose. He did it for the joy set before him. And what was that joy? Well, it was to please the Father, and it was for us. He was the firstborn among many brethren and he did it for us. We are the joy set before him. He loves us. We motivated him, we helped him endure because of the love he had for us.

Audrey McCracken:

He endured the cross and despised the shame. He had a goal, it had a purpose. The pain had a purpose, and so that is faith. That's how we need to operate now. That's how he wants us to operate now. He wants us to see beyond the cross that we're bearing right now, beyond the pain that we're enduring right now, beyond the everyday frustrations that wear us out every day. Right, he wants us to see beyond it. He wants us to have a vision, a purpose of what could be, of what should be, of what will be, to have our eyes fixed on that and on him and to be going through it so that when we're through with it, when we get through it, we can sit down with him and enjoy him.

Audrey McCracken:

You know we're not. We might be going through hard things, but not without a purpose. Right, we're not going to be driven by fear. We're going to be led by faith. Fear drives. It drives us. It brings torment, but faith brings hope and peace, and I'm learning this.

Audrey McCracken:

Guys, I just want to say that I don't have the market cornered on this. I am walking right here with you in this. I'm trying every day you know it's one thing to know something as another thing to walk it out, and every day, by grace, I'm trying to walk it out and be real with the Lord and with myself and with you. And you know we're growing. We're growing and there's enough grace to grow. It gives us enough grace to grow and I just want to encourage you in that today and I want to pray for you.

Audrey McCracken:

Father, thank you for my sisters. I thank you, lord, that I'm not alone. I thank you that we're in this together, that we are the body of Christ, and that you have given us so many examples of faith in the word and outside the word, lord, in real everyday life today, and in so many people, lord, that have walked before us and showed us the way. But, lord, none like Jesus, none like Christ, who endured the cross and despised the shame for the joy that was set before him. God, let us find that joy. Let us find the joy in serving you, father, let us despise the shame. And, lord, let faith be our guide and not fear. And I ask you this for myself and for those who are listening and praying with me today, and we thank you for your grace, lord, that it's always more than enough. In Jesus' name Amen.