Every day, whether you realize it or not, you’re making a choice. With every decision, every habit, every thought pattern you entertain, you’re either cultivating a spirit of courage or a spirit of fear. And here’s the thing, when pressure comes, what’s been growing inside you is what’s going to come out.

I think about Nick Wallenda walking across that tightrope over an active volcano in Nicaragua. When a reporter asked him why he would attempt something so impossible, he said, “Sometimes you have to step out in faith before you can see the way forward.” That wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. That was the result of years of cultivating courage, not in himself, but in his ability and training.

The same principle applies to our spiritual lives. If you’re constantly consuming fear, i.e. anxious news cycles, worst-case-scenario thinking, “what if” spirals, then when you face your Jordan River moment, fear is what’s going to flood your heart. But if you’re daily disciplining yourself to trust God’s character, His promises, His faithfulness, then courage will be ready when you need it.

The Israelites had been waiting 500 years for this moment. Forty years of wandering, a new leader, and now they’re standing at a raging river at flood stage. Two million people needed to cross, and there was no bridge, no boats, no obvious solution. Just God saying, “We’re going through.”

But notice what happened first. God moved them closer to the impossible thing He wanted them to do. He didn’t ask them to cross immediately. He had them camp at the edge for three days. Sometimes God does this in our lives too. He positions us near that scary promotion, that difficult conversation, that step of obedience we’ve been avoiding. He’s not being cruel; He’s giving us time to see what we’re really trusting in.

Fear wants to keep you paralyzed at a safe distance. Courage says, “I don’t know how this is going to work out, but I know my God, and I’m going to take the next step He’s asking me to take.”

Here’s what I’ve learned from 20 years in the ministry: obstacles aren’t problems, they’re just part of life in a broken world. The biggest obstacle you face isn’t your circumstances; it’s you. It’s me. We’re our own biggest hindrance to trusting God.

But when God goes before you, impossibilities become possibilities. The question isn’t whether you’re strong enough, smart enough, or brave enough.

The question is: Is God calling you to step into this, and are you willing to let Him go first?

So what are you cultivating today? Are you feeding your fears or your faith? Because whatever you’re growing now is what you’ll harvest when your Jordan River moment comes.

Questions for Reflection:

What impossible situation is God calling you to step into? What would it look like to take one step closer to that river’s edge, trusting that the same God who parted the Jordan still makes ways where there seems to be no way?