This is one of my favorite seasons of the year to walk outside! I love the crisp morning air, the beautiful color of the leaves, and the opportunity to start donning my long-sleeve attire again.

And, the other morning I did just that.

After suiting up in my warm workout clothes, I set out for a refreshing walk. It was perfect…until they showed up.

Two large dogs, owned by one of our neighbors, raced to the very edge of their shock line barking and growling as fiercely as they could when they saw me approaching. I internally braced myself as I knew I would have to walk within mere feet of their ferocious faces to continue on my path.

Nothing in me enjoyed this process. To be honest, at the very sound of their initial deep bark, every fiber in my being was screaming to turn around and go back. Fight or flight mode kicked in and sent my feelings into orbit.

In that moment, I had an intentional choice to make – run away or keep walking. I chose to keep moving forward this time (but, in complete honesty, that hasn’t always been the case).

Choosing to continuing, though, didn’t alleviate the feelings of fear, concern, or dread. My natural eyes could see plainly that there was nothing preventing those two ginormous dogs from busting through their shock line and tearing me to shreds.

It was one of those tangible faith over fear moments. Choosing to trust God over my feelings was intentional.

It was a conscious, deliberate choice.

It parallels the choices we get to make every day as we step into the spiritual arena with the enemy of our soul.

Like those snarling dogs, the devil makes a lot of noise. He taunts, yells, and accuses in a purposefully intimidating fashion and, if we’re not careful, we’ll wind up overwhelmed in all of our emotions exchanging our faith for fear.

God’s given us armor (see the full list in Ephesians 6:11-16) to help us take our stand against the devil’s boisterous rants.

“…take the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (Ephesians 6:16 HCSB)

Faith helps us move forward when we feel afraid. Faith encourages us to put one foot in front of the other when we feel paralyzed. Faith calls us to keep walking.

Is the enemy yelling so loud right now you can feel his breath? I pray that God would strengthen you to make that intentional, conscious choice to grab your shield, step through those feelings of fear by faith, and walk forward in the confidence that God is always with you.

“Do not fear, for I am with you; don’t be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with My righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10 HCSB)

Until next time, Grace and Glory!