Fear

Fear. The one thing in my life that seems to keep me down and prevent my growth as a person. Lately, I feel like I have been letting fear crawl into my heart and influence everything I have been doing and saying. It really sucks letting fear consume you. It eats your happiness and joy you feel, and replaces it with worry and pain. But! (there always is a "but" isn't there) The love of the Lord fights against fear and shuns out fear from our hearts. He washes away your fears with all that he does in our lives that bring us up and closer to him. His love showers over every single inch of our bodies and cleanses us of what we have done and of the causes of our fears. That is what I am writing about tonight....Fear and overcoming it.

If you look at every single thing we do and every decision we make, there is fear. The fear of the unknown, change, spiders, rejection, commitment, snakes, heights, roller coasters, close quarters, bugs, big words, and the list goes on and on. They are all fears we as people have of each other or of things in our lives. We recognize these fears and let them control our decisions. For example, if you are scared of heights, you are probably not going to be seen on the top of the Power Tower at Valleyfair just dangling there. Correct? That situation can be put for every single one of those fears I listed before. We as humans tend to avoid things that we fear. It is just nature. If you don't like something don't do it. Simple as that. Right?

See, I feel like for some of those harmless fears like snakes, spiders, dogs, heights, roller coasters, and stuff like that this really doesn't apply. For those fears that are deep and genuine like the fear of the unknown, commitment, rejection, failure, and maybe even fear of truly being happy. You think of it there is a fear of it, but I can honestly say that if all we do is avoid the situations that scare us then are we really living? Or are we avoiding?

One of my favorite Christian speakers, Graham Cooke, in his Inheritance message says this:

"Because when I look at you says the Lord, I see something that I love, and I see someone that I can love outrageously. And I have so much to bestow upon you, so much to give you, so many places to take you in My heart, but you can’t go there unless you allow Me to love you. And my love for you, will break every barrier, bring every wall crashing down, and know this says the Lord, My love damages fear, My love hates fear My love will fight fear it will fight fear in you it will fight fear around you, and if you have fear this evening says the Lord, then know that you have a treat in store, because My perfect love casts out fear, there is no fear where I am present, because My love casts out fear. Beloved, you are My beloved, you are My beloved, and in My love I want you to feel good about yourself.”

Wow.

THAT my friends is how you fight the fears we feel. You accept the Lord's love and open your heart up to him, and you will then be cleansed of all of your fears because the Lord loves you sooooooooooo much that his love will cast out every single fear, insecurity, and smallness you feel. His love WILL endure. Pretty amazing, wouldn't you say?