An inescapable reality of the world has been weighty on my mind lately, the presence of fear. The topic of fear runs to a depth that I can hardly pretend to understand nor write in intricate detail about. However, it must be made clear that there are different kinds of fear; there is a beautiful, divine kind & a broken, fallen alternative. The greater of the two is a fear when standing in awe & reverence before an eternal & loving Father, one that is the beginnings of wisdom, as King Solomon first told us so many years ago. The world offers us an alternative which, simply stated, is a kind that leaves us crippled & bound as slaves. This past week I spoke with a patient about Jesus & what is meant to fear the Lord. As we spoke, he heard for the first time in his life that Jesus was his friend (John 15), that we were saved even when we were dead within our sin (Ephesians 2) & that there is no fear in love but instead perfect love drives out all fear (1 John 4). We sat & talked for together in great length, & he wept, just as I did when I felt the freedom in Christ that someone cared enough to share with me.
I have realized something over the past few years, that it is not the removal of fear (or evil) surrounding a man that will cure him. Instead, it is the careful but painful excision of fear from within a man that will set him free. This ultimate freedom from fear is only accessible through Jesus, for he is the only one who has overcome & the only one who has bore it all. This fear that started in the Garden is a cancer that embeds in the mind, lingers in the heart, binds our hands &, ultimately, infects our very souls. As we know Christ as our savior & friend, as our identity in Him grows, freedom is a certain fruit awaiting us. No one I have ever known has desired slavery & a life in Christ has left us no option to return to that bondage.
"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, & do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." -Galatians 5:1
Not by our own efforts let us blindly journey to the depths & darkness of ourselves to find freedom but let us go with God. For God is the true light that gives light every man. When we journey into freedom with Him we have a light that will expose any darkness & in Him we have the strength to overcome it.
We are free in Jesus & there is no room for fear in such a freedom.
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