Day 34 - 150 Day Challenge - Perfect Love Drives Out Fear

[cleanaturalady]

Psalm 34 

Forgive my lack of a post yesterday.  I blame a busy house and a toothache.  Back on track today.

I used to be a very fearful person.  I was afraid as far back as I can remember.  I was shy and afraid of adults as a kid.  I could not even step up to a counter and order a Coke; I was paralyzed with fear.  As I grew up I still had fears, I was afraid of rides at amusement parks, new things, new people, of being alone, of being in crowds, talking on the phone...the list goes on.  I forced myself to do somethings over the years but there were still a lot of fears in my collection.

Having kids pushed me to get rid of a lot of my fears.  I had to be able to be brave for them.  I didn't want to pass on my fearful nature to them - that was my greatest fear. :)  I learned to pick up the phone and make appointments, meet new people with relative ease and take my kids out into the world without fear of the public.  I still wasn't that comfortable with it, though, I just forced myself to do it anyway.

On day I was reading my bible (I don't know what passage in particular I was reading) and it occurred to me that my fears were a sin.  Yes, I had to admit that my fears were a sin because I was trying to control the fears instead of giving them over to God.  1 John 4:18 states that perfect love drives out fear.  That means there is no fear in God's love because His love drives it out, gets rid of it completely.  Perfect love cannot reside with fear.  What a freeing thought this was for me.

I did something sort of unconventional to give my fears over to God.  I got some slips of paper and wrote down all my fears on the slips.  I prayed over each one and told God why I feared that particular thing and then gave the fear to God.  When I was all done, I took those slips of paper and tore them into little pieces as a symbolic way of obliterating each and every one of those fears.

This Psalm reminded me of that little ceremony.  Verse 4 says "I sought the LORD, and he answered me;  he delivered me from all my fears."  That is exactly how I felt - delivered of all my fears.  I still have anxious moments and there are a couple of big fears that I have, mainly claustrophobia and fear of heights, but those don't interfere with my everyday life, so I guess that is why I haven't found it necessary to conquer them.  Some day I hope to, though. 

When I have a moment of panic I remind myself that my God is in control, not me.  It is when I gave up the need to control everything that I was able to give up all these fears.  We have to get to a point of understanding that there is really very, very little in our surroundings that we do control.  Once we understand that, then it is much easier not to try and for me, much easier to give it over to God because I believe that he can control it.  He has the ability to control the universe, so why would he not be able to control the small fears in my life?

 © KDV 2009

[Peggy1984]

Jul. 19, 2009 at 7:51 PM

I enjoyed your post very much and could really relate to what you wrote! Thanks!