A continuance of FEAR

Fear is a physical and mental phenomenon that leave you shaking and sweating, full of stress, anxiety and nausea. It's effects are measurable and paralyzing; It is an uncontrolled controller. Fear can make you want to scream and simultaneously leave you unable to make a sound. It can make you want to run but leave you standing motionless. Both options can leave you breathless. Denying the existence of fear only allows it to sink its roots deeper into your soul. The most fearful person is the one who is too proud to admit fear, rendering him or her too weak to combat it. Take some time to list those things that you fear. Do you fear giving up control of certain situations in your life? Do you hold onto certain relationships too tightly? Do you fear letting others see beneath the mask you wear, worried that they will reject you if they really know you ? Are you afraid that God will reject you?

Unfortunately, fear often becomes the tool of the devil. Fear binds us and prevents us from moving forward. It becomes a rearview mirror of spirituality,focusing our attentionon past sins and failures rather than on the mercy filled horizons of the future. As a fortune cookie theology warns - "If you don't master your fear, fear will become your master".

Fear of change inhibits many christians in the spiritual journey. Yet Jesus Christ calls us to shatter that fear because the entire Christian life is about learning how to surrender to God.

Nothing not even sin, should produce in us the sort of fear that keeps us from God. I have heard people say, "I can't go to church, my sin is to great. The walls would cave in if I walked in there." Now come on, give me a break - This sort of attitude reveals the soul of someone who yearns for the heavenly mercy of God while simultaneously being consumed by a wordly fear of inadequacy. But Christ didn't spend most of his earthly ministry reaching out to prostitutes, lepers, tacx collectors and vagrants simply so those with the less obvious "white collar" sins might have a nice place to gather and acknowledge his presence for an hour or so every week.

So just remember he welcomes everyone.