How are you doing managing your fears?

I was reminded recently that the first thing Adam said to God after he and Eve declared independence and sinned was, “I was afraid.” It is noteworthy that the first thing God said when Christ was born was, “Fear not.”

In simple terms, the struggle in our lives is between independence and dependence, fear and love, flesh and Spirit, self-sufficiency and reliance upon the Father. When we live independently, we are controlled by our fears. Walking in the Spirit, depending upon our Heavenly Father, is living beyond our fears in perfect love, and the Bible says, “Perfect love casts out all fear.”

So when I ask how you are doing at managing your fears, I'm asking you how you are doing at walking in the Spirit; how you are doing living in perfect love; how you are doing thriving in grace; how you are doing residing in Christ's sufficiency; how you are doing basking in Father's love.

When you get right down to it, at the heart of every fear is the presupposition that God is not present, not in control, and not sufficient. This is a contradiction of who God is and how he designed you to live. Regardless of what transpires, what mess we find ourselves enmeshed in with the war, or what loss we are faced with, our Father promises to be sufficient and to never leave us or abandon us. There is nothing, no place, no one, and no concern that is greater than He is. We are secure in the knowledge and fact of His love. Period! What is there to fear?