By Scott Keith.

 

We live in a world that is dictated by fear. We fear the past. We fear the present. We fear the future. Most of all, we fear the ever imagined “what if” scenario. Life seems to be surrounded by endless possibilities all of which, at one time or another, seem to be out to get us. This fear seems to be crippling our society. Children don’t go out to play for fear that they may be injured or abducted. Grown and educated adults seem afraid to take risks in their lives for fear that these risks may endanger their physical or financial security. As a result, is seems as though every decision we make, is made out of fear.

This is manifest at every level. The government seems to make every decision out of fear. Banks are rescued due to the fear that if they fail the world might spin off of its axis. The military is maintained at high levels of deployment out of fear that terrorists might attack America. Never mind that there happens to be no country on the planet that can match our military might, our military needs to continually grow; out of fear. Political decisions, global financial decisions, social program decisions, all made out of fear.

Families make decisions out of fear. We fear that we don’t have enough time, money, or energy. We fear that we won’t progress according to the lines society dictates. We won’t move from our “starter” home to our “dream” home within the appropriate timeline. Finances, social status, our romantic life, our children’s educational decisions, our spirituality, all decisions made out of fear. In essence, we fear that we will not be able to keep up with Jones’.

Further, we raise our children in fear. We keep them from doing certain things and prevent them from doing others all out of fear. What school should our children attend? Let the fear of not getting into the right college decide. What sports should they play? Let the fear of not being able to pay for college decide.

We fear that they won’t make the right decisions, or the decisions we think they should make, so we make every decision for them – essentially crippling them.

Do we let our children date? We allow fear of possible fornication and possibly even pregnancy or worse decide. Do we let our children drive? Again, fear decides the when, where, and how often. We raise our children in fear and make our worst fears come true.

Fear as the primary motivator when making a decision is the worst possible determiner. Decisions should be made with the understanding that freedom is what most often produces the desired outcome of any decision, not fear. Operating from a point of fear is operating from the Law. The Law not only accuses, it produces fear and convinces us that fear is our primary concern. Why do we as Christians still operate out of fear when we have the promise of freedom from the Law, freedom from fear, won for us by Christ? We of all people ought to operate out of the freedom won for us by Christ. Remember: “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” We are now free to operate, in all of our different endeavors, with the realization that all things; the power of sin, the power of death, and the power of the evil one, have been wrapped in Christ, and you are free. So stop allowing fear to run your life! Live no longer as a slave but as one who is free. Live to serve one another; society, neighbors, family, children, freely. Live as one who knows that love, especially the love of Christ, first shown on us and then shown to one another on His account, is stronger than any fear.