Monday Marker: Full of Fear or Full of Faith?

Which are you right now; full of fear or full of faith?

Confession time.

If I’m honest, lately I’ve been full of more fear than faith.

I’ve been going through a season of struggling with fear. Only in my head though as I’ve kept my fears to myself. Suffering silently.

Are you suffering in silence?

I’ve even been afraid to say what I’m afraid of because I’m afraid it’ll happen. Crazy, right?! Things of which I have no control over.

I’m not afraid of things like the dark, being alone or dying. It’s the smaller fears that I'd allowed to invade my thoughts.

Fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Fear of losing a loved one or something bad happening to a loved one.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve felt fear about my future. I’ve allowed what-if questions to torment me and rob the peace, joy and love I’m supposed to enjoy as a Christian.

I’ve condemned myself for even struggling with these fears because I’ve had a relationship with Jesus for a long time. I've walked fearless before.

I’m an encourager by nature and have a long history with exercising my faith in the Lord and trusting Him as Lord of my life. The results have been miraculous. It’s during the difficult times in my past that my faith grew and I really didn’t have any fears.

So why would I struggle with these fears now?

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love casts out all fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love” 1 John 4:18.

If I love the Lord as I claim to and spend my life on Him as I strive to do, walking in faith, what is there to fear? If perfect love casts out all fear that means I’ve not been walking in His perfect love.  

God’s love is always perfect. Even when life is hard and bad things happen. Easy to say, right? Not so easy when you’re going through hard stuff and it doesn’t feel like God is loving you.

But it’s true. God’s love is always perfect. When we put our faith in action and cling to this truth, there’s no room for fear. I’m learning that’s how His perfect love dispels all fear. When I tap into my faith in Him, the supernatural happens and that faith fills me up and casts out all fear.  

There is no greater love than what we’ve been given through Jesus Christ. This perfect love paved a pathway straight to God’s heart through Jesus Christ. We grasp onto this love by faith. He has a bright and glorious future for us who have accepted that truth and Christ lives in our heart. When I remind myself of this truth, I feel silly for having been so afraid.

Will you accept that truth too, letting His perfect love cast out your fears?

There is no fear where faith abounds.

I want to leave you with this poem written by Diane Machen.

“Deeper love down to our very soul,

it’s there we have an Anchor who will not let us go.

The Lord who calmed the sea

is the One who sees us through;

He’s given us a deeper love.”

Fearless,

Terri