"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear." 1 John 4:18
I've always been afraid of something. Afraid of people, afraid of isolation. Afraid of failure, afraid of success. Afraid of airplanes, crowds, cars, big cities. Afraid that I'll repeat the mistakes of former generations. Afraid of embarrassment and rejection.
So I overcompensate. I do everything in my power to make everyone like me. I never expect success - thus in my mind I never fail. I travel to crowded cities in airplanes and cars. I brush aside embarrassment and ignore rejection.
Now there is a certain comfort knowing that just about everybody on God's green earth shares my fears. Ok, maybe not all my fears - most don't hyperventilate when an airplane flies overhead - but every one of us to an extent is afraid of something! And it's ok! God did give us a healthy fear of danger - and our emotional fears when kept in check, can help us become better people. But there is a point where fear consumes everything we do. And the more we dwell on that fear, the more we let it drive what we do and how we act, the further we fall into that fear. I read a statistic recently that 350 million people around the world are currently diagnosed with depression. I have no doubt that that's correct - we have become a society enslaved to fear.
Fear is crippling. It has kept me from moving forward in life. It has kept me from obeying the voice of God. It has made me believe that God can't be pleased with me and my decisions, and would never want to use me.
Paul talked about this in Romans - in a society that measured the righteousness of man, he preached that our favor with God is completely unmerited. That there is power in Christ to break every chain we've allowed ourselves to become entangled in. That we are now children of God, and we have no reason to be afraid!
"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery
to fall back into fear, but you have received
the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we
cry, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:15
I'm no longer a slave to fear. I'm no longer afraid of the future, no longer afraid of my past. I'm resting in the perfect love of Christ that casts out all fear, and I'm no longer afraid that His perfect love is conditional. I'm a child of God.
Fear is crippling. It has kept me from moving forward in life. It has kept me from obeying the voice of God. It has made me believe that God can't be pleased with me and my decisions, and would never want to use me.
Paul talked about this in Romans - in a society that measured the righteousness of man, he preached that our favor with God is completely unmerited. That there is power in Christ to break every chain we've allowed ourselves to become entangled in. That we are now children of God, and we have no reason to be afraid!
"For you did not receive the spirit of slavery
to fall back into fear, but you have received
the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we
cry, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:15
I'm no longer a slave to fear. I'm no longer afraid of the future, no longer afraid of my past. I'm resting in the perfect love of Christ that casts out all fear, and I'm no longer afraid that His perfect love is conditional. I'm a child of God.
