No Longer a Slave

Fear has bound me for years.  The things I HAVEN'T done because of fear is a long list.  I have allowed this thing called fear to impact each and every relationship.

What if...
...the car wrecks...
...my husband leaves me...
...the kids are damaged/injured/scared...
...we run out of money...
...the cars are repossessed...
...the house is foreclosed...
...we run out of food...
...the sky IS falling...
...the conspiracy theorists are right...
...the economy collapses...
...World War III starts....
...ISIS attacks...
...my husband dies...
...my children die...

All of the what-ifs are enough to paralyze anyone.  If everyone looked at the world this way, nothing would ever be accomplished.

The truth?
We have had MULTIPLE car wrecks.
My husband tried to leave me...twice.
My kids were hurt/molested/scarred/scared.
We DID run out of money...MANY times.
The cars WERE repossessed.
The house DID go into foreclosure.
We have run out of food more times than I can count.
Those other things...well, they seem far-fetched right now.

And yet...
...we are still married.
...we have a roof over our heads.
...we have food in our refrigerator/pantry/freezer.
...we have more vehicles than we can drive.
...our kids are healing.
...and God is still in control of it all.  He has provided for us each and every day in ways we cannot even comprehend.  Some days, we look back and just marvel, because we still cannot figure out how God did it.

Today, I faced some old fears...ones that have haunted me in the form of nightmares for many years.  In facing the old fears, I recognized that God, the source of LOVE, has set me free from those old fears.  The names I had be given and had taken ownership of were NOT mine.  The behaviors I had been accused of were NOT what they had been called.  I recognized, once again, that the Devil is a liar, and uses fear to manipulate and push us away from God, the only source of true LOVE.

And THAT, my friends, is why Scriptures say PERFECT LOVE casts out fear.

Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. I John 4:18