Photo by Sara Elizabeth
I John 4:18
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
And further then, fear is a type of anticipation of punishment. How I understand it today, I expect or deserve punishment/pain because of a behavior, decision, or lifestyle. I literally expect something bad to happen when I am afraid, that’s why the fear exists.
I am usually afraid of heights. Why? Because I subconsciously believe I will fall down, drop from that great height, and suffer immeasurably. My expectation is a negative result.
I become afraid in dark areas, small spaces, unknown neighborhoods, heavy wind, unanticipated illnesses, unfamiliar aches and pains, thugs, and so on. Each one, in and of itself, is nothing until I endow it with my fear and my anticipation of pain or loss.
Instead, I could be filling my heart with the love of that God who has promised all good, who has declared sovereignty in my life, who has made covenant with me through Christ.
The trick is to accept those circumstances that have created fear historically in my life and re-tool them by the presence of the Holy Spirit, that love agent in my soul, that abounding presence of Grace. I must learn how to release the fear. I am the one holding on to the familiar.
In recent days, I have been suffering with a condition called “dry eye.” It’s not life-threatening but quite annoying and of course, my old self has taken it to the worst case: blindness and loss. It’s not even a medical prediction that dry eye leads to blindness. This is the fear talking. Again.
Everything in my life, because of the best deal I ever made in my life, with the Christ and invitation to co-dwell with the Holy Spirit, everything is for my good: all of it and everyone who shares it with me. Such a simple equation.
I fear for my children’s future, but even that, I must place in a bubble and blow away. My love for them will carry them further than my fears.
Meditations from Zion 
[…] Spirit within simply cannot sin persistently nor can he/she deny Christ. Like my post on “Fear and Love,” these two cannot dwell together. We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin . […]