There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
1 John 4:18
Pray
This same day last year Father, I prayed on and shared this passage with Your children, and reflected on fear and its inability to be of and by You.
Fear and love just as fear and faith cannot co-exist. I cannot live truthfully and righteously in love or faith if fear is present, and the same is true in reverse.
Since we are Your children and Your reflection, and You are perfect–then we too are perfect and have no reason to fear.
Father if I put my total trust in You there is an immediacy in seeing the Truth, immediacy in my healing, and in overcoming my fears and challenges. The abundance I seek is mine once I let go of fear and embrace love and faith.
I want to experience true love Father as You know it, and as You want me to see it, feel it, and know it. I want to walk in authentic faith without question, hesitation, or selfish motives. I want to experience the growth and satisfaction that comes from skydiving with You, letting go, and surrendering every care and concern to You.
You know my struggles, fears, pain, frustration, sins, and what is in my heart and mind. Help me to take my next step towards freedom. Help me to take my next step towards truly understanding, embracing and living in, with, and for love. Help me Father. I praise Your name today as all days. Amen.
Reflection
I try to not repeat the same scriptures shared from previous postings, even from years ago. I believe that the Bible has more than a lifetime of passages to pray and reflect on. Today however, something happened that motivated me to share this one again. As I was searching and seeking out passages that would hit home for me, that would help me to drive down fear, I ran across this passage. When I checked my notes and discovered I had shared this before, I at first decided to move on and find another passage. Then I saw the date.
What’s the likelihood that exactly one year from the date of my post that I would select the exact same passage, dealing with the exact same issues?
Except this time, this year, something in me is different; there is growth, maturity, resolve, and a determination to finally embrace my truth–God’s Truth–for me–for all of us. That truth is, that we have nothing to fear. We shouldn’t even fear the concept of fear, or being consumed by it.
Some things we overcome immediately or in a short period of time, some things require longer amounts of time as we struggle to face reality that no matter how much we claim to be control freaks we have absolutely no control over God. Then for some of us it takes a lifetime to get to the point where we finally face and rebuke what we feared most. Others leave this realm consumed by fear.
Now I can tell this reflection may get deep and lengthy so please keep walking with me as we work this out together.
I’ve always feared being hurt, betrayed, losing a loved one, failure, and at times success (now how’s that for a twist?). For as long as I can recall I’ve feared death, never getting married and having children, obesity, and quite possibly even poverty (but not that much).
What do you fear? What did you used to fear that you eventually overcame?
What I’ve come to fully realize is that as long as I fear these things they will always and most certainly manifest in my life. But also, that some things just happen. Someone will hurt and betray me, I will fail at some things and succeed at others, and I will lose loved ones either in failed relationships or in death. So why fear these things?
So I check off those boxes.
While at the same time, I’ve never been obese, so why wouldn’t I think that with continued exercise and healthy living that I wouldn’t remain in a healthy weight range? So why fear obesity?
So I check that box off.
God has always blessed me financially with what I needed most when I needed it most. He’s blessed me with family and friends who would never let me go without or live on the streets. He’s blessed me to live comfortably even in uncomfortable times, so why fear poverty?
Box checked.
As far as children go, there are plenty of options that God will present when the time is right. Now the marriage thing, well, that’s definitely something to leave for God to work out. We see what happens when we try to force things to be magical, there’s usually more fizz than pizzazz. I’ve visualized my future and it’s bright and filled with an abundance of love.
Check the box.
I’ve finally opened my eyes to see (not just recite in desperation) that God has the perfect idea, plan, place, and time for all things that will take place in my life. The same is true for yours!
Physical death is real in that we leave these shells we call bodies, but we continue to live in another level of existence. Even if you would rather consider an eternal rest as your final point, isn’t there life in resting? So do we fear not being here, or leaving before we’re ready?
My fear was leaving before I was ready. I’m one of those who want to live well-past the age of 100 so that I might watch, mentor, teach and learn from many generations to come. Who says that can’t still happen? But if it doesn’t, there’s nothing I can do about that. For just in life I have no genuine power to control when I enter or leave this world. So I decided some time ago that I must let this fear go, cast it away, and relish in every second that God blesses me. This is true for all of our fears.
We must embrace what God has in store for us. Think of all the experiences and adventures ahead of you. We must ask God to fill our cups so that they run over, so that we have more to bless others with. Everything happens when it’s supposed to happen, and as long as you stay out of the way, you will have more blessings than you could ever imagine.
Thank you for breaking bread with me today, and for walking with me as we addressed some of the fears that haunt and cripple millions of people each day.
Today cast another fear into the nothingness pit!
Love always,
Natasha
Copyright 2012. Natasha L. Foreman. Some Rights Reserved. All Prayers and Reflections are Copyright Protected by Natasha L. Foreman. breakingbreadwithnatasha.blogspot.com
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