Fighting the Fear of Messing Up: Responding with the Word of God
Believers desire to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. We strive to be fully pleasing to Him and bear fruit in every good work. We pray for one another to increase in the knowledge of God. (Colossians1:9-10) We know that works do not save us (Ephesians 2:8-9) but that true faith will have works or it is dead (James 2:14-17). “We were created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Our works bring the Father glory (Matthew 5:16) and we were created to bring Him glory (Isaiah 43:7). But in the midst of this knowledge, my sin nature fights a battle on the forefront: “What if I mess up? What if I do something wrong? What if I say something wrong?” This fear may sound like humility, but it’s not. It’s pride. All fear, except for the fear of God, is pride because fear is the opposite of trusting God. Therefore, this fear must be repented of, which means to acknowledge it as sin and then to turn from it in the future. But how do we do that? How can I fight the fear of messing up?
1. Realize God is Sovereign
Daniel 2:20-22 says, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to Whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; He reveals deep and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him.” God is sovereign, but it’s one thing to say He is sovereign and another to believe He is sovereign. Believing God is sovereign means we will apply that truth to how we live our lives.
My narrow-minded, prideful sin nature makes it is easier for me to trust in God’s sovereignty over the wide world, than to trust in His sovereignty over the consequences of my individual choices and their impact on the lives of the people around me. But truly believing He is sovereign starts with setting aside my false sense of control and recognizing that the free will He has given me is worked into the bigger picture of His omnipotent sovereignty. It means knowing that no matter what happens God will use it to make His children more like Jesus. “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29a). It means knowing that the One who created us also wrote our entire story. Psalms 139:16 says, “In Your book were all written the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them” (NASB95). God has already written our stories and for believers every story has a happy ending with Christ in glory (Romans 8:30).
2. Understand Christ is Our Righteousness
In the book of Jeremiah, The Lord reveals Himself as Jehovah Tsidkenu—The Lord is our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6). To be declared righteous means to be declared right before God; it means to be justified (“Righteousness – Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words”). We are not righteous in and of ourselves (Romans 3:10). We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), but Christ became to us who are in Him, righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). Paul wrote that for our sake God made Jesus to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ is our righteousness—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (Romans 3:22). We cannot earn justification through our works; justification comes through faith in Christ Jesus alone (Galatians 2:15-16). And, just as we did not earn it through our merit, we also cannot lose it through our failures (Hebrews 7:25, Romans 8:1). Our standing with God is based on the righteousness of Christ and not on any righteousness of our own, so we are completely secure in Christ, because of Christ. We are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, Whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith (Romans 3:24-25a). Nothing can shake us from the position we hold before God because it is held through Christ our righteousness.
3. Know Christ Bore our Punishment
Have you ever heard someone say, “I want to take my punishment so I can have a clear conscience before God?” They are trying to reconcile themselves by taking their punishment. The truth is, bearing their punishment is getting what they deserve, but it does not wash them clean. We cannot reconcile ourselves to God (Ephesians 2:8-9). God does not desire sacrifices or offerings made by us (Hebrews 10:5), that is why Jesus came as a man so we could be sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all (Hebrews 10:10). Christ offered Himself as a single sacrifice for sins, for by His single offering He perfected for all time us who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:12,14). It is only through faith in Jesus, the perfect spotless Lamb sacrificed for us, that our hearts can be sprinkled clean from an evil conscience (Hebrews 10:22). When we put our faith in Jesus we are acknowledging that we cannot wash ourselves clean through our sacrifices any more than we can save ourselves through our merits (Romans 3). You could suffer an ocean of tears, you could bleed your body dry, and still never come any closer to reconciling yourself before God—because you are a sinner. Our sin has so utterly separated us from the holiness of God that no amount of serving our time or paying our debt or taking our punishment would ever be adequate to reconcile us to God (Romans 3:23-25). But Christ bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. It is by His wounds that we have been healed (1 Peter 2:24). We need a Savior. Only through the death of the perfect Lamb can we be brought into right standing before God. That perfect Lamb was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53:5, NIV translation).
4. Believe Christ is our Advocate
So, Christ is our righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21), Christ bore our punishment (Isaiah 53:5) and Christ also is our advocate. When we sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, Who is the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). Jesus actively intercedes for us at the right hand of God (1 John 2:1-2, Hebrews 7:25). He appears in the presence of God on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24). He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them (Hebrews 7:25).
*I want to pause here for a moment to reiterate what I’m confident you already know. And that is that these thrilling truths do not give us a license to sin. We cannot throw our hands in the air and make whatever choices we want all in the name of ‘God is sovereign, Christ is my righteousness and He bore my punishment’. Paul wrote, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:1-2) “Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:13-14). So, these truths do not remove our responsibility to put off sin and put on Christ (Ephesians 4:22-24, Romans 13:14).
5. Obey Through Christ
I have an extremely cautious personality. If there is a line drawn in the sand and I’m told not to cross it, then I tend to stand ten (or ten thousand) feet away from the line so I don’t accidently sneeze and trip over it. This isn’t bad in and of itself, but when I’m weak it can turn into the sin of failing to do what God has told me to do because I’m scared that I might mess up. Jesus told a parable about a man who went on a journey and entrusted His property to three servants. He doled out his wealth to each servant according to their abilities. Two of the servants dealt wisely with the talents given them and made more talents, but one servant was afraid of his master and went and buried the talent in the ground. When the master returned, he rebuked that servant saying, “You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:26-30). God has given every believer good works to do (Ephesians 2:10) and being afraid of messing up is not an excuse for slothfulness, it is not an excuse to run and bury what He has given you. So, applying all these truths means that when the fear comes saying, “What if I mess up?” I can say, “I might mess up, but I know I am secure because I know Christ is my righteousness, Christ bore my punishment, and Christ is my advocate. Therefore, I choose to obey through Christ.”
In Summary:
I’m going to mess up. It’s a Bible proven fact. So are you, but be encouraged! God is sovereign: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:28-29a). Christ is our righteousness: When the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:4-7). Christ bore our punishment: He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24). You obey through Christ: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:12a-13). You have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer you who lives, but Christ who lives in you. And the life you now live in the flesh you live by faith in the Son of God, who loved you and gave Himself for you. (Galatians 2:20)
So, fellow believer, do not be afraid, but let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (Matthew 5:17). I am praying for you.
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*All Bible quotations are taken from the ESV unless otherwise stated.
* Vine, W. “Righteousness – Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.” Blue Letter Bible. 24 Jun, 1996. Web. 6 Jul, 2022. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/search/dictionary/viewtopic.cfm>.
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