Fear contradicts Love!
During our time here in Thailand, a car rolled off the road and ended up smashed at the side of the road. Welman and I were about forty meters behind that car when all this took place. We stopped and miraculously all 4 people inside the car came out alive.
It then just struck me. In a blink of an eye four people’s lives could have ended just there and then, without warning. And it is sad for me to say, but the harsh reality of all of this is that all four of those people were most probably of Buddhist faith and would thus have ended up in hell.
It breaks my heart to think about that. Just imagine how sad this must be for God?
I then just thought to myself, why aren’t I doing everything I can and using every opportunity I get to
try and ‘save a soul’, to share Jesus with everyone? What is keeping me back? It then just struck me; one of the biggest reasons is fear.
I have the fear of being inadequate, the fear of being rejected by other people, the fear of just not being good enough.
Who am I to be more afraid of what people think of me, than of what God thinks about me?
Then God spoke to me…
He reminded me that I am created in His own image, the image of God (Gen 1:27). If I then live in God’s will, I will certainly never be ‘inadequate’. So that removes one fear.
In Mark 13:13 we hear that men of this world will hate you because you are a follower of Jesus, but those who stands firm to the end will be saved. There will always be the chance that you will be rejected by man. But this gives you no right to fear man. In 1 John 4 we hear that God is Love. And in the same way that God loves us, we should love one another. And listen to
this, verse 18 says: “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”. For us to live in perfect love towards one another there is no way we can fear one another, no way that we can fear what someone thinks of you, no way that we can then have a fear of being rejected. And we are commanded to live in love towards one another.
Fear contradicts love. Love is from God. Fear is from the devil. If you have fears that are keeping you from being obedient to God, fight them! 2 John verse 6 says: “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands.”
Do not get me wrong, it is sad for me to say, but I still have fears in my life daily, but I am going to make the decision to walk a path with God, a difficult path, a path of defeating all fears in my life, and living a life of love alone.
Do not let fear keep you from sharing Jesus with a fellow brother, with a colleague at work, with a family member, with a friend or with a perfect stranger. Do not think you are inadequate. You have God in you; you have the Holy Spirit to lead you with the right words, the right actions. Do not let fear keep you from confronting a situation that is not from God. Do not let fear keep you from forgiving someone. Start every day with a fighting spirit, a fighting spirit against the fears in your life.
You are a warrior of Christ, a champion of God. Do not fear. LOVE!