WHEN LOVE GETS LOUDER — PART 3
Fear is part of being human, but it was never meant to tell us how to live. In this series, we'll look honestly at the voice of fear while discovering again the Perfect Love that draws us toward Himself.
What Is Fear Costing Me?
Living Again In The Places Fear Has Limited Me
“I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” — John 10:10
The Cost We Don't See
Fear always charges us something.
Sometimes the cost is obvious.
Other times we accommodate fear so gradually that we don't recognize how much of our life we've surrendered to it. The boundaries begin to feel normal, and eventually we may forget there was ever more life beyond them.
One of the most revealing questions we can ask isn't simply, “What am I afraid of?”
It's “What has this fear been costing me?”
The Power We Give Away
I've often said, “We give power to what or whom we fear.”
Not because fear actually possesses that power, but because we can begin surrendering parts of our lives to it.
Fear gets a vote in our decisions, determines where we won't go, and draws boundaries around what we're willing to risk.
Before long, we can find ourselves living inside boundaries Abba never drew for us.
Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
Fear limits.
Jesus gives Life.
Three Questions
These three questions have helped me uncover places where fear may have been given more influence than it deserves:
What am I afraid of?
Why am I afraid?
What would I do if I weren't afraid?
That last question is especially revealing. It can show us where fear has quietly been writing limits into a life that Jesus came to fill with His own.
Love Is Still Inviting
Abba doesn't shame us for the places fear has limited us. His Love simply keeps drawing us beyond boundaries we were never meant to live within.
We don't reclaim that ground by becoming tougher, braver, or more determined.
We walk into it knowing the Life of Jesus is already within us, and we never take a single step alone.
Fear may have influenced yesterday, but it doesn't own tomorrow.
The Life within us is greater than every boundary fear has drawn around us. Love is still inviting us to live.
Reflection
What has fear been costing me?
Where have I given fear more influence than it deserves?
What would I do if I weren't afraid?