Many times fear causes us to stall at Life's intersections. We fail to move forward when God has given us a green light to proceed. We get stuck in 'park' or 'neutral' while a prescribed course of opportunity remains untraveled; an adventure lies unclaimed.

The promises of God are a series of 'green lights' encouraging us to keep moving towards our goal. Jesus said, "The words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life." When the Spirit of God directs these words to our hearts, they become green lights signaling our faith to take action. God's word rebukes our predispositions to doubt and fear. The Lord repeats to Joshua four times, as he is commissioned to lead his people into the promised land and drive out the enemy: "Be strong and (very) courageous."

God expects us to put our foot on the 'faith' accelerator when He gives us a 'green light' promise. But as John Wesley said, "Fear benumbs the soul" .

What causes our faith to freeze in fear? Here is a top-ten list of potential courage killers:

1. Our personal inventory. We are preconditioned to take stock only of our own resources of might and power, rather than the storehouse of God's provisions (Zechariah 4:6). William Carey, one of the founders of the modern missionary movement, was told that he did not have what it takes to be a missionary. "That's all right," he said. "I can plod." He went ahead, plodding for God, and God's grace did the rest.
2. Our natural understanding. Our limited knowledge can keep us from spiritual knowledge (Proverbs 3:5).
3. Approval addiction. We might be relying on the approval of some other authority figure to whom we are emotionally attached or dependent upon.
4. Herd instinct. We are often more 'other directed', than 'inner directed'; more likely to go with the herd because we fear rejection than dare proceed alone in obedience to the Good Shepherd.
5. Psychic overload. The abundance of activities we are involved in and the demands upon us keep us from doing the few important things we are called to do.
6. Crisis-motivation. We only move ahead when a 'crisis' or another person calls us to action.
7. Discouragement. The word derives from the Old French meaning- disheartened. We lack 'courage' ('heart'). We fail to walk in a 'heartened' state, through the Spirit. We fail to encourage ourselves in the Lord. As a result our hearts are depleted of faith.
8. Perfectionism - Everything we do we must do perfectly; we cannot risk failure.
9. Traditionalism - Our tradition overrides any new course of action.
10. Laziness - we are asleep at the wheel, don't know the light has turned green and wouldn't muster up the energy to proceed if we were awake.

Courage is the ability to commit to a bold course of action in the face of difficulty and danger. Learn to condition your faith with hope by meditating upon the promises. As you do this you will learn to doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs. The 'faith race' is worth running. Those who complete their course are assured their rewards.

To experience the great Adventure, we must first be willing to venture. To risk not, is to want a lot.

The green light isn't going to turn any greener,