Spirit of Fear

The subject of fear and anxiety has come to my mind a lot lately. With the economy the way it is and morality seeming to slip in the country, it tends to make people fearful and anxious about the future. There is also fear of intimacy, fear of failure and even fear of success that seems to pervade the lives of many people.

As Christian we are called not to be a slave to a spirit of fear (Romans 8:14-17). This is what fear does to us - It causes us to be bound into slavery to it. We are so afraid to be out of control of our emotions that we won't allow God to take control of them. This actually leaves us with less control because our hearts and emotions are tied up in paralysing fear that keeps us stuck in the muck.

1 John 4:16-18 tells us that perfect love drives out fear. There is only one being whose love is perfect and that is God. In him we are able to understand perfect love, grab on to it and finally drive out the fear that plagues us. This is often harder than it sounds to actually do.

We, as followers of Christ are asked to die to our own selves (Ephesians 4:21-24) so that we can live the victorious life that God has planned for those who belong to him. We are meant to rely fully on God to not only calm, but actually eradicate our fears. We have to put aside all our expectations and goals in favor of releasing our will fully to God, knowing that what he expects for our lives is much bigger and better than anything we could think up or achieve on our own.

So, once we give up the idea that we have to be in control, the fear begins to fade. We are slowly able to shed each layer of fear that we have built up over a lifetime of disappointment and degradation. God's love and fear cannot occupy the same space. We have to actively command the fear to leave and make a conscious effort to replace fear with God's love.

Layer by layer we replace the fear with Gods love and before long the perfect love of God has fully consumed all the fear that we once fed on and were bound to. We are then able to breath freely and live in hope.

© Kim Due 2009