After summarizing some research on self-esteem, John Ortberg describes an internal question that a lot of people ask when approaching a challenge:

“When you face a difficult situation, do you approach it, take action, and face it head on, or do you avoid it, wimp out, and run and hide?”

When you face a difficult situation head on, you feel good that you stepped up. Even if things don’t turn out like you hoped, you have no regrets because you took on the challenge.

But if you play the avoidance game, you know you took the easy way out. Even if things somehow turn out well, you still feel deep within yourself that you wimped out.

So how can you rev up your engine to face the difficult situations of life regardless of how you feel?

You remember Psalm 145:18: “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.”

When you call on God in truth, he is near to you. You don’t have to be scared to death when you’re walking tall with the God of life.

“When you face a difficult situation, do you approach it, take action, and face it head on, or do you avoid it, wimp out, and run and hide?”

The presence of God is to fear what a flame is to dynamite. Explosive!

Never fear. Because the Lord is near.

By Matthew Ruttan

• On Sunday I start a new teaching series called “Christian Atheism” at Westminster in Barrie. Curious? Learn more in this 50 second video.