Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Today was a rough day in the best way possible. Have you ever had a day where there Lord stirs your heart and challenges you and you feel like you are forever changed? Yeah, that's what my day looked like today. I managed to make it through without being an emotional basket case, but only by a slim margin.

This morning at church, we talked about fear. Fear... let's see... what am I afraid of? I'm afraid of snakes. I'm afraid of spiders. I'm afraid that I'll fall down in public and everyone will laugh. I'm afraid of creepy crawly things lurking in the shadows, and I'm afraid nobody will be around to kill them for me. I'm afraid of the forest at night. That's all legitimate, right? That's not the issue, though. At my core, in the depths of my heart - what am I afraid of? Are there relationships I haven't invested in out of fear that someone will be less than careful and cautious with my vulnerable heart? Are there places I haven't gone because I'm afraid of danger and the unknown? Are there words I am not willing to speak to people out of fear that I will be mocked or rejected? What opportunities have I missed because fear won out? What blessings have I cheated someone else out of because I was afraid to get hurt? I cannot afford to live in fear anymore. Lucky for me, there's a way out. Love. Yup... love. 1 John 4:18 is the verse we went through today. "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." You want to fight fear? Love. If true, godly, perfect love drives out fear and we choose to live in that, then where is there room for fear? There isn't. I can hear you now... "But if I choose not to live in fear, the things I'm afraid of really might happen!".  It's true; if you choose not to live in fear, it is totally possible that the things that you feared could happen. You might get your heart broken. You might go somewhere and get physically hurt. You might get mocked for speaking truth into someone's life. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, is the love of God not worth more than those things? Is the love of God not worth every sacrifice you can make? Will God not heal your heart from those pains? Did God not know what He was doing when you were mocked and felt rejected? I know that for me, God's perfect love and choosing to live in it is more important than even my own life. How can I choose to live in fear any longer when there is something so much better waiting for me? Between fear and love, I choose love.