If perfect love casts out fear--and I believe it does, why do we find ourselves still afraid? Fear comes up in many forms. We are afraid of the unknown or being alone. Some are afraid of death. Others the future. But we all face fear. Dave Dorr gets to the heart of overcoming fear with personal faith in this refreshing post (I encourage you to read the whole thing):
We cannot underestimate the importance of freedom in our lives. Freedom is one of the top reasons Jesus came to earth: “For freedom Christ has set us free...” (Galatians 5:1).
But what does freedom mean?
I read the entire Resurgence post...it was a great encouragement to me. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. The timing is so of God also as I have been bringing those fearful thoughts into captivity and laying them out before God. I am exhaused with living a fearful life! I especially like his definition of True Freedom, "Freedom is no longer having to obey fear; fear is no longer our master. We are uninhibited to be bold, to step out in faith, to risk. Irreligion produces fear because the weight of guilt and having to trust in yourself is too much for our fragile souls. Religion produces fear because we are afraid we haven’t done everything right; that the slightest error may restrain the hand of God’s blessing."
ReplyDeleteSo this definition of freedom... I'm interested in what it has to say first about the Trinity's role in creating freedom and second what connection to others have to do with freedom (community: friends, humans in general, etc.). I worry that it has much to do with the Christian individual and much less to do with God and the intimate connections between people. At its best it fails to mention these two key components of freedom. At its worst it fails to incorporate them into the notion of Christian freedom, which is tragic.
ReplyDelete-CJ