Facing Fear With Love (1)

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.  There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  (1 John 4:16, 18 NIV)

Many of us identify a fearful person as a coward, someone who is not assertive, or someone who cowers when intimidated.  But fear can also be expressed by unrealistic bravado, excessive talking, work, alcoholism, and lying.  Fear reveals itself in cover-ups and phoniness.  Fear keeps us from being fully honest about our feelings, prompting us to project false or only partially true images of who we truly are.  Fear makes us deny – consciously or unconsciously – that anything is wrong.  “It’s all good” is a sure sign that it is not. 

Perceived expectations of others cause us to avoid meeting issues straight on. We choose to evade and deceive rather than discuss and resolve.  As we continue this pattern our true self becomes obscured.   We either withdraw and withhold or get angry and lash out at those around us. 

Once we, too, were foolish and disobedient. We were misled and became slaves to many lusts and pleasures. Our lives were full of evil and envy, and we hated each other.  But—“When God our Savior revealed his kindness and love, he saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:3-5 NLT)

In order to inventory our lives honestly we have to look at what causes us to be fearful.  As we peel back the layers and come to the core of our being we discover that our deepest fear is that our inventory will reveal the person we have become.

We are fearful that occurrences in our past will cause us to be rejected by those around us and by God even though we are told His love for us is so great that He sent His Son to die for our sins.   We are unsure about this God because we don’t know Him very well.  Witnesses have told us of experiencing God’s unconditional love for each of us but because of the deep sorrow in our soul we find it hard to believe that He could care for the hell deserving sinner we have become.  We are not convinced that telling the truth will have the power to set us free. 

Today, God invites us to set aside all our apprehensions and just do what His word tells us: Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! (Psalm 34:8 NKJV)

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