The only thing we have to Fear is...

Scripture teaches an amazing truth in 1 John 4:18 that 'There is no fear in love and perfect love casts out fear'.  We learn back in Verse 16 that 'God is Love'.  Put those two truths together and we can know that God casts out fear from the life of the believer.  Yours and my love relationship with God gives us all the ammunition needed to live a life of victory over fear.

Yesterday, my very good friend, Holt Condren, came and spoke to us at Pilgrims Rest.  He taught from Ephesians 2:10 about God's plan and purpose for us.  He taught that we must live courageously in this world to be able to achieve the abundant life God has called us to.  He made the point that anything worthwhile will also be challenging and that to overcome those challenges we must overcome fear.  His statement was that we should actually 'accelerate through our fear' knowing that as God's children we can be victorious over the challenges life will give us.

I don't know about you, but I am certainly challenged by this thinking.  We live in a world full of fear and we almost expect our challenges to be 'too big' for us.  Can we counter-culturally embrace the truth that we should run head-long towards our challenges?

Well, come to think of it, Jesus - the Son of God - walked perfectly through this life.  All the while, He knew He was walking 'The Calvary Road'.  Our Savior knew the challenges ahead and He knew that each step He took would lead Him closer to The Cross.  Hmmm, if that is our model - why do we shrink, why do we whine?

Maybe the only thing we have to fear is...a life of unfinished business because we have shrunk from the 'God-Sized' Plans He created for us (Ephesians 2:10, Jeremiah 29:11).