God’s Love Overcomes My Fear
Woohoo! A New Year! Goodbye 2018, hello 2019! The excitement of the U.S. people, the ball dropping in New York and staying up late is usually contagious for me. However, this year I was a party pooper and went to bed early. I treated it as another day and my resolution to take better care of my health started before the New Year.
I chose to start early on my New Year resolutions. Like overcoming my fears also started before the New Year. Starting the New Year strong is what every person wants, but won’t starting resolutions before the New Year bring longer-lasting results? Every year people make thousands of resolutions to improve their health, but most of them do not last.
I think of the reason why people don’t want to start in the month of November is because of Thanksgiving, nor in the month of December because of Christmas. Thanksgiving and Christmas always brings lots of food and many times gluttony. The holidays bring a leisurely mindset, which can lead to us becoming couch potatoes. I know it’s a struggle for those who want to quit smoking, drinking or other health changes.
Though people naturally want past failures wiped out and a clean slate they shouldn’t wait until January 1st to make corrections. Change will last longer when one is disciplined in the midst of strong temptation, like around the holidays.
What has been the average outcome of New Year resolutions? After a couple weeks, their resolution becomes too hard and giving in is the only thing that brings comfort. Yes, comfort. Oftentimes, after just two weeks into the New Year, withdrawals from sugar, nicotine or alcohol seem to overcome their desire for change. We must not only have a desire to change but also the power to do so, a power that is stronger than ourselves.
God’s power raised His Son Jesus Christ from the dead only 2,000 years ago. God’s power saved me from my sins when I trusted Christ’s sacrifice to pay its price. Now I know that I will be going to Heaven for eternity. God’s power enables me to be free from addictions, which includes more than just the obvious, like gluttony, laziness, smoking and drinking. God’s power enables me to overcome fears that I have as well.
Fear is not something to be taken lightly. It can be just as crippling as any other addiction. Fear has the power to keep us from accomplishing day-to-day tasks. Fear prevents us from doing what is good for us, perhaps because of what our friends will think. Fear drives us to disobey authority, not keep promises, etc.
However not all fear is bad. There is a healthy fear, like the fear of heights that keeps you away from the edge of a cliff or the fear of a man pointing a gun at you. These scenarios speed up your heart rate, heighten your senses and pump extra adrenalin into your system, a fight or flight response.
But the Lord died to set us free from unnecessary, unhealthy fear by giving us His love. The opposite of fear is love, not self-confidence. It was God’s love that drove Him to powerfully raise His Son from the dead. It is God’s love that powerfully saves us from our sins so we would not be punished in hell. If you choose to believe that Jesus Christ really did die and rise again for your sins and trust that He is the only way to be forgiven, you too will receive His gift of His Holy Spirit.
God’s love empowers me to live free from addictions, including the addiction of fear. How? God’s Spirit lives in me and His love, which is perfect, casts out all of my fears. In the Bible, 1 John 4:18 says, “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.”
My responsibility is to rest and rejoice in God’s perfect love. I cannot receive this kind of love from any person, place or thing. I cannot receive it from myself either. Only God. His Word says, “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us…”
God’s responsibility is to drive out my fears. For example, instead of fearing what the other person will think of me, I now rest in the fact that God loves perfectly, both me and the other person. As a result, I no longer fear that person, but instead love them with the love God has given me. The previous verse continues on by saying, “and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Whenever I forget to rest and rejoice in God’s perfect love, fear creeps back in and I have a hard time loving others. But as soon as I discipline myself to depend on His perfect love in a given situation, my fears are gone. What a great and loving God that I serve!
