How to Overcome Fear and Say Yes to God

“Let’s go. We’re going to be late.”

“I’m coming,” I yelled back. I just needed another spray of hairspray with my bangs held high and my hairdryer’s heat directed to seal the lift. It was the 1980s, and I was 14 years old. Hair looked better with a little volume. Eventually, I made it to the car with the rest of my family right before my dad pulled out of the driveway.

Tiny hairs on the back of my neck rose to position as soon as he pulled onto the road for our twenty-minute drive to church. My brow furrowed, and my palms grew sweaty. I squirmed, shifted, and sighed. The Holy Spirit was present, convicting, and didn’t want to wait. I didn’t understand why everything with Him felt so urgent.

Every time the Holy Spirit came, the devil didn’t seem far behind. This time, the devil brought his friend, Fear.

Fear fought for my peaceful, happy, outwardly safe life by warning me of all the difficulties tied to the Holy Spirit’s unsolicited prompts.

Fear made a lot of sense, and I was convinced he was mostly right. Everything the Holy Spirit prompted did seem difficult or awkward. The Holy Spirit’s persistence felt more like nagging, but that was mostly because I wasn’t interested in doing what He asked.

That morning, I felt like I was in a three-way conversation between the Holy Spirit and the devil’s new sidekick, Fear.

Finally, the Holy Spirit wedged Himself in between Fear and me and whispered, “Say something, say yes. Before I realized it, I whispered in a barely audible tone. “I think God is calling me to Africa.”

Some people would have said yes to Christ, yes to Africa, that morning. I didn’t. At fourteen, I thought I loved Jesus. But maybe I just wasn’t in love with Him?

In retrospect, the Spirit whispered a path to life: Africa. But all I could see, hear, or feel were obstacles. Africa sounded like one big hardship, and my flesh balked at the idea of submission. My spirit may have been willing, but my flesh was definitely weak.

This inability, or unwillingness, to say yes to Christ spurred my first heartbreak.

It wasn’t the loss of a person, relationship, or even marriage that was so painful. It was the death of a dream, my dream. The realization that God’s plans for my life differed so dramatically from my own, ripped my heart in two.

Offering Jesus eternity was easy because I didn’t have much control over that anyway. But offering Jesus today was hard. Lordship meant exchanging my hopes for His.

I believed in Jesus. I just didn’t believe Him.

As Romans 4:6 says: “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.”  Shifting from believing in to believing is the key. But at 14-years-old, I didn’t believe that if I would lose my life for His sake, I would find life (Matthew 16:25). Instead, I doubted His plan and questioned His goodness.

But my path to happiness wasn’t as direct or assured as I confidently assumed at fourteen years old. The world promised but failed to deliver, and perhaps God knew more than I gave Him credit for.

Like many, I found God at the end of a trail of broken promises and unmet expectations.

Although my path wasn’t littered by devastation, it was marred by apathy and unfulfillment. And here, decades later, God reminded me of a path He once offered.

This time, God whispered a water well in Africa. Instead of fixating on my fears as a wife and mom to four small children, I offered God a feeble yes. Almost inconceivably, God grew my faith and my yes. He shifted my spirit as He changed my heart. He moved me from no to yes.

The road to yes was not just a journey to a water well in Uganda but a journey to Christ. God was right. The secret to finding life is learning to give it away.

When we give away our time, talents, and money for Christ’s sake, we find life—the peace, passion, and purpose we crave.

Most days, obedience felt trivial. But God transformed ordinary and seemingly inconsequential obedience into an extraordinary journey with Him. He unraveled the divine mystery of how offering Him an ordinary yes leads us on life-changing adventures. And it’s easier than we think.

We just have to say, “Yes, Lord.”

God allowed the 14-year-old me to experience the inevitable heartbreak doubt and disobedience yield. But He was also faithful in redeeming my no and revealing the strength and joy of obedience to Him. 

If you’re eager to delve deeper into how God transforms our hearts from ‘no’ to ‘yes’, or how to experience God’s promises and satisfaction through ordinary obedience, I invite you to explore my book, *The Next Yes: Saying Yes to God and Finding Life in Unexpected Places.

To hear more of Dana’s inspiring story about her water well, please check out Depth Podcast Episode 21.

*Note: If you are interested in purchasing this book, I would love for you to use the Amazon Affiliate link above to help support the ministry. Thank you!

Dana is a nurse anesthetist and adventurer with a heart for Africa and lives in North Carolina with her husband Tim and their four children. She specializes in OB/GYN anesthesia. Dana served as team leader for Kenya Relief’s Gynecological/General Surgery Team and was the stateside leader for Kenya Relief’s inaugural Breast Cancer Screening Clinic in Migori, Kenya. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Renew Uganda Initiative. God has sent Dana on four medical missions to Africa and one God-ordained call to a water well.

Dana is passionate about encouraging others to say yes to God and find life in unexpected places. She continues to share her journey to a water well at churches and women’s events.