FAITH vs. FEAR

(July 31)

“The Lord is my light and my saviour; whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?” (Ps 26/27: 1, Septuagint-translation)

The opposite of fear is not courage or self-confidence, but faith. When some form of fear or anxiety rears its ugly head in my heart, like the fear of financial insecurity, of human opinion, of abandonment and being alone, of “failure” or “success,” – it’s a tap on the shoulder, telling me that I’ve slipped away from God-reliance; I’ve lost sight of His loving presence in my life and my world. Fear is a result of self-reliance, because self-reliance is an attempt to carry the weight of the whole world on one’s own shoulders, which ends up being scary, once you begin realizing this is impossible. This realization bogs you down in procrastination and inactivity, which breeds more fear.

So, I need to hurry back into His hands, in some heartfelt prayer, letting His grace liberate me from the crippling effects of fear. Because God’s grace, – His “energies” of mercy, love, and Self-offering com-passion with us, – liberate me from the bonds of self-doubt that come from self-reliance, assuring me that I’ll be OK, and that I’m already OK, in God’s eyes, so I can humbly do the next right thing.

Today let me choose faith over fear, and hand myself over to God, as I move forward on my cross-carrying journey. “The Lord is my light and my saviour; whom then shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid?”