Love and Fear part 2
Nothing will hold you back like fear does. Worry. Stress. These things can literally make you sick. The mind effects the body. In earth as it is in heaven. And the biggest fear we have is that we're unloveable. Why do you think Eve was so eager to swallow the serpent's lie? It spoke right to her heart. When the sepent hissed in her ear and told her she had to do in order to be... well of course! It made perfect sense to her carnal mind. Of course I'm not good enough. Of course I have to earn the love and acceptance and understanding that I crave. All of her fears were being reinforced. The things she already believed were being confirmed. But here's the key to all of that: The serpent was LYING! We were made in God's image. We never had to do anything to be like Him. We were already like Him. And let me do this the way I always do it. We were made in LOVE'S image! We never had to do anything to be like LOVE. We were already like LOVE. Trying to do in order to be--because we were afraid that we weren't--is how we got all mixed up and messed up. That's how Adam got us into all that trouble with sin and death--not by disobeying God and making God mad so that God had to punish us, but by stepping out of the finished work and trying to do it through our own human effort. Trying to earn something that can't be earned. The gift of God (eternal life, knowing the Father and the One whom He sent) is... well... a gift. And you can't earn a gift. If you have to earn it, it's not a gift. A gift can't be earned, only received. But, again, therein lies the problem. We don't think we deserve such an amazing gift. We look at ourselves--and since we're always with ourselves we see the good, the bad, and the ugly--and we think, "There's no way God could love me." And then we list all the "evil." Or, if we're really feeling frisky we weigh the evil against the good and try to come out on the good side. But there's always that fear. That fear that we're NOT good enough. That the evil outweighs the good and we're taking the down elevator instead of the up elevator. (Again, for the record, I don't believe that's even close to how "the afterlife" works.) You can't have a real relationship with someone you're afraid of. You'll always run FROM God instead of running TO God. Just like Adam and Eve did. They hid from His presence. He didn't leave nor forsake them. But they were afraid that He was going to punish them. Remember our key verse? 1 John 4:18. I only want a snippet of it for today. "...because fear has torment..." That's not God punishing us or tormenting us in a fiery hell someday after we die. That's US tormenting OURSELVES with stress, and worry, and fear. That's us holding ourselves (and God) back because we're afraid to step out of our comfort zones. Afraid to walk in faith. We let what we see with our natural eyes--the surface stuff, the outer court, outer man, actions and circumstances stuff--keep us bound up in fear. Afraid to believe what we know is true. Because what if it doesn't work? But let me ask you this (and to some this may be even more scary) what if it does? What if we CAN have everything that we've been freely given? What if all we have to do is stop being afraid and just believe...? It could be good. Could even be more excellent...