This Song of Freedom

"Freedom is such a beautiful thing, and yet so few are really free. Nearly all people live in prisons of their own making, no matter their background. In truth we all exist in our own sanctuaries- but I don't mean cathedrals or prisons. I'm talking about our hearts and minds, which imprison us in anxiety, fear, insecurity, anger, and other forms of misery. The walls and bars that keep most in a constant state of suffering are thoughts and emotions; not concrete and steal. To be free of this, is to be free indeed. The truth is, the only key that will unlock the prisons that we all live in is love. Unconditional  love, like God's." -The Sanctuary, by Ted Dekker

Lately it seems as though God keeps underlining the topic of fear, and I really believe its something I'm suppose to share with others. There are so many different kinds of fear and at so many levels. I encourage you to read the passage in Matthew 14:29-33. You may know it well, but try to open your eyes to something you didn't maybe see before. It's the classic passage of Jesus calling Peter out onto the water. The thing that always grasps my attention is the fact that Peter really desires to be close to Jesus, to in a sense do what he does. He yearns so deeply to be close to God and to follow him, that he doesn't think about anything else. But once Jesus tells him to all on water...all of a sudden Peter becomes so consumed with his fear and surroundings, that he begins to sink. For me personally, there are areas where I feel like God is saying to take a step out of the boat and to just trust and let go if my fears. You have to understand that with me, I don't fear easily. I don't fear things because they look or sound scary. I don't even fear something just from one negative experience (unless its extreme). I usually only fear if I've been deeply affected by something in a negative way; especially if it happens multiple times. When God asks me to face these deeper fears, I almost become frozen. Fears sometimes are there to protect, but when they start controlling your life...it starts to take away and consumes you.

God has been showing me a reason WHY real love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). When we get to a point where fear controls us, it's blocking our ability to really love others-even God and ourselves, and is selfish as blunt as that sounds. When fear overcomes us...we start holding back and distancing ourselves. We start to become mentally crazy in our attempts to "protect" ourselves from whatever we're terrified of. Without realizing it, we take over the place God should be. We stop trusting him, and as a result, we distance ourselves from his love. Some of us (myself included) would say that we have good reason to keep people at arms length. Please know, I'm not saying we should allow people to keep hurting us etc. I'm talking about loving people in general, and those closest to us like family etc.

LOVE is a four letter word. Everyone on the same playing field, everyone deserves the same love. Something I rarely think about is that Jesus had to have known a great amount of fear, but the thing that made him different in this area is that he didn't let it control him. Jesus didn't (and still doesn't) hold back from anyone. He of all people has every right to hold back but chooses not to. He wants us to step up our game and love like no one else does. The interesting thing is that when we love MORE, we worry LESS. When we choose to really BELIEVE in our hearts rather than just know in our minds, that God honestly LOVES us...not just cause he's obligated to but because he WANTS to... It WILL break the chains of fear and doubt. We surrender to God when we choose not to fear. Plus he hadn't given us a spirit of fear...we can trust that he will protect us from things that would ruin us, we don't have to do it ourselves. The enemy just wants to use fear as a crutch cause fear offers the false promise that maybe we can control our life. That maybe God doesn't really care enough to keep us safe and strong. It keeps us frozen so we can't walk out and make the difference God wants for us. You aren't alone!! I'm still struggling with  this...I'm just realizing more an more that the more we fear, the less we trust God, the less we love others, and the less peace we will know. We can only do our part and give God what we can't do..we can never control what wasn't meant for us to control. So much more could be said on this topic, but  basically the more we choose to let God handle the fear when we can't...the better everything will be, not just for ourselves, but for others too. :) not always easy, but always ALWAYS worth it. Love you guys!!!