“So, what are you afraid of?”
“I’m afraid of taking on the name and losing. They’ll call me a fraud. Fake Creed.”
“Why don’t you think about what’s true? You love to fight, right? So then use the name. It’s yours.”
The fear of failure can be paralyzing. It can capture all of our mind’s attention so that taking any step forward seems impossible. Our mind is bombarded with everything that can possibly go wrong, being constantly reminded of all the ways we can end in failure. And I think what scares us the most about failing is being defined as a failure.
In this time when all that’s on our mind are endless ways we can fail, it’s important to shift focus. The quote above is from the recent movie, “Creed,” starring Michael B. Johnson and Sylvester Stallone. Without giving the whole movie away, above is an excerpt of dialogue between amateur boxer Adonis Creed and his girlfriend, Bianca. Adonis is the son of Apollo Creed, (if you don’t know who this is, you need to watch the Rocky movies!) one of the best boxers of his time, and is preparing for a big fight. All this time he has this fear in his mind: “What if I lose? What would become of me? What will people think of me? I’ll be a failure. I can’t live up to my dad’s success. I’ll be a fake Creed.” Notice how, as with Adonis, our fears and questions never suggest positive things to us, only negative.
As Bianca listened, she turned to Adonis before asking a very insightful question:”Why don’t you think about what’s true?”
Ding! Ding! Ding! We become paralyzed by fear because we aren’t thinking about what’s true. Our minds are taken captive by the lies of the enemy, leaving us with no choice but to watch the horrible scenarios play out over and over in our head. The Lord is asking us the same question: “Why don’t you think about what is true? Why don’t you take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ? Why don’t you believe for good possibilities?”
And then the Lord reminds us who we are as Bianca did to Adonis:
“So then use the name.
It’s yours.”
The Lord has given us His name. It’s time for us to stop acting like we are helpless victims and realize who we really are: “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, [capable of declaring] the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). Such are the names He has given us. This identity is not something we have worked for, but, as a matter of fact, it is something Jesus worked for us to have. It’s time for us to believe Him when He says, with confident conviction, that we are chosen, royal, and holy…
We are His Creed.
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