Did you ever up in the morning and to find your adrenaline is already running high? I hate it when I start that way. Fortunately it mostly only happens now if I have an alarm go off for an early trip to somewhere. Even that is not the sense of being afraid I want to touch today. Years ago I began to ask myself: What am I afraid of? Then I began to disarm those fears.
How does one ‘get to the bottom” of one’s fears? I have found the easiest ways includes bringing an honest heart, a desire to no longer be afraid, the Bible, the love of our Creator, the Holy Spirit to help illuminate both the Bible and ourselves. Finally, we bring all that to the Historic events of the Cross of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Romans 1 talks a lot about how people exchanged the good for the bad or the counterfeit. But to stop being afraid we need the Love of God. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18
That’s what Good Friday is all about. Jesus took on all the bad, all the evil and counterfeit on Himself when He went to the Cross. The effect is an opposite set of exchanges from those in Romans 1. They exchanged the good to receive the counterfeit. But the message of the cross is about exchanging the bad for the good.
To lose our fears, we give them to God, specifically to Jesus who already took them on the cross those two thousand years ago. Then, when we ask for his love in return we begin to experience what was already freely given on the first “Good” Friday.
It sounds easy. It is easy. We tend to make it harder than it really is. Is that all there is to it? Yes, and no. Yes, the exchange of fear for the love of God is always there waiting for us to take advantage of it. The no part has to do with our need to have other, more mature followers of Jesus, come along side us to help us grow in the experience of Gods perfect love. Growth comes by walking alongside people who can love us and model how to love ourselves and others, because we need grace from others.
Transforming our minds with the truth of the word of God is also part of the growth and healing process. Again, we exchange what we are afraid of with the lies that are part of the fears, for the perfect love of God. We need to give ourselves grace and receive grace from others.
Abba, please show me what I am afraid of. Thank you for offering your perfect love in exchange for our fears. Help me to learn to accept it freely as it is freely given. I am also grateful for the word of God, so full of truth and grace. Thank you for the mature people you have for me to grow with. I declare the victory of Jesus so I may experience new levels of your love in my life today!
