Facing Fear With Kindness (2)

When King David did an inventory of his heart he exposed murder and adultery and lying and self-righteous pride.  He knew he deserved nothing from God.   In spite of this, he relied on God’s loving kindness and wrote these words:  Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13 NLT)

In the recovery process, when we take inventory of our character defects we sometimes think first of ways others have let us down.  We were hurt or betrayed, attacked or molested, lied to or beaten, stolen from or cheated. Sometimes this went on for a number of years.  We came to believe that life was unsafe for us and began to live in fear. Fear caused us to behave in unhealthy ways.  Our actions towards others, at times, even mirrored the painful behaviour inflicted on us. 

When our well-being hinges on the actions and opinions of other people, we will continually react in fear because we can never be sure when we might be rejected, criticized or ignored. Life based solely on human interaction is only as secure as the humans we entrust our lives to. Where we have experienced disappointment with others we will find anger and fear in the face of those disappointments.  In order to make a searching and fearless moral inventory we must ask ourselves when we first looked to others for approval, safety, and care rather than looking to God. 

We are created to live securely by living first for God – the God who loves us perfectly, weaknesses and all. In this life we will have troubles – all of us.  They will show up in various seasons of life but God’s love is strong enough to get us through even the most devastating of times.





Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?  No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.   (Romans 8:35, 39 NLT)

We are called to live confidently in the sure knowledge that God will never leave us nor forsake us and will always guide and protect us in the midst of the storms of life.  Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in you. (Psalm 56:3 NKJV).  Actions or reactions based on any other way of living are something we now need to fearlessly inventory and accept personal responsibility for.

©2015 Partners in Hope