No Fear

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 4:18


Fear.

It’s a dirty word that pollutes your mind and corrodes your heart. It sticks to the bottom of your soul and lingers long after panic sets in. This is one emotion you don’t want to face head on.

But you must. You must strike it at full force, no thinking, all action. Use every ounce of confidence and say to yourself, “I am better than this.” We do, after all, have love on our side. The love of our Heavenly Father, who has conquered everything attempting to invade our hearts. He is perfect, and by His Son we, too, are made in His image. And doesn’t perfect love cast out fear? Thought so.

But here, I’ll admit something. I’m a coward. I am trapped by this tyranny and scratching at the chains binding me. I have been fearful. A lot. And it’s been building throughout the last few weeks. I’ve taken great strides in admitting out loud that I’ve been scared of a certain situation, but the heavy heart and pulsing panic still remains. It’s one thing to say I’m struggling; it’s a completely different notion to trust God to help me conquer the issue. To take the one thing that paralyzes me with cold shock and place it into His hands and say, “Ok Lord, I give it to You; teach me how to handle this,” is daunting and feels unnatural, to hope in someone else coming to my rescue.

Yet I’ve found out this beautifully complicated breath of life is a process. Where we are not merely placed at point A to point B, but along the way we are formed. Refined, forged into who we are meant to be. And this means turning our trust and faith to Him who directs our steps.

I still have the feeling that God is doing something with this fear, far beyond anything I could imagine. I know that He is pulling me closer to Him when I pull away from what has been bogging me down. Something is brewing from this drop of doubt and pouring into a beautiful blend of belief. And when it finally takes form, I’ll look at the trail this tale has taken and see nothing but God’s beautiful fingerprints along the way.


Prayer:
Father, I am fearful. There are thoughts I cling to when I should release them to You. You tell me to place everything in Your hands, yet I hold tight to the poison that will consume me if I keep letting it grow. Please take it away. Take it from me and let me put my trust in You. There is a purpose for this fear welling up inside me. There is reasoning I can’t understand but I am believing You are working for good. I turn my fear over to You. Amen.