Love & Fear

So I've been thinking about love and fear this week. The opposite of love is fear, not hate as many of us think. For hate and anger are born out of fear. Fear is at the core of our human nature. In the Garden of Eden, when Adam and Eve decided that they could become like God without God - why would they need Him, they thought - the effect was to fear God and hide from Him. Since then, our human response to God is of fear. Fear of the angry judge who might strike us down for our sinful lives. Fear of being unworthy and insignificant. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of being alone. Fear of being abandoned or rejected. Think about how much fear controls our lives! Look at the movies we watch, how our actions are controlled by fear of some kind. We are an anxious, depressed people.

In the Bible, God's continual message to His people over and over is "Do not be afraid." He says that hundreds of times. I think if Christ had shouted it from the cross, we would still be afraid. How is it that we continue to fear Him and life/death even when He tells us over and over not to. Thanks to Adam, we reflect ourselves upon God - because we are afraid of Him, we assume that He is angry with us. Sure He's angry - it's like if your child came to you and said, "Daddy, I don't think you really love me." Wouldn't you be angry that your child ever believed that you didn't love them and want to fix their misperception immediately?

1 John 4:18 says that perfect love drives out fear. So my question is, why are we still so afraid? Why have we not experienced the perfect love of Christ in our lives? Maybe it's because we are still so much like our ancestor Adam. We don't think we need God. We think we can take care of this ourselves.

Thank you, Papa, for your abounding grace, never ending mercy, unconditional love, and faithfulness that never cease to leave me breathless.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.