Throw THAT Fear in the Trash

Sometimes it's almost funny how God puts things in your life to test and grow you about a subject you are studying in the Word. It's almost like He says, "Ok, you think you have this under control? Let's see what this does!" Since starting this study on fear, I have had a number of events that would have normally put me under with worry and fear. But I have to tell you I'm doing ok. So, I may be growing a bit! In chapter 3 of "Fearless", Max Lucado addresses the 'Fear of Disappointing God'. He speaks of a football player for the University of Texas back in 1941, Noble Doss. In a very important game, one that might lead the team to the Rose Bowl, Doss dropped a pass. He felt he cost the team the national championship and a trip to the Rose Bowl. Although Doss had a very productive, happy life, when speaking of that game 50 years later he cried as he spoke. We're like that with God. Many times you hear people speak of a limit to God's grace.....that we can only ask for forgiveness so many times, and then God is going to get tired of us asking and turn His head away from us. We believe that, like humans, God has a limit to His patience and love for us. That sooner or later, He is going to get tired of our sin and turn a deaf ear to us. I remember a day many years ago when God spoke to my heart about a habitual sin I had. I remember where I was, what I was doing, and who was with me. I know, without a doubt, that He was saying, "Vee Ann, it's time to lay that sin down. It's time to go to a different level with Me. With My help, you can change this behavior. I am asking you to give this up for Me, so that you can be a more effective worker for Me." Conviction. Pure and simple. I knew that I needed to do this, to let God help me break this pattern. I remember I had plans for that weekend that I needed to cancel. Those plans would insure that I would be in a situation where to go where I planned would pretty much mean I was going to partake in this particular sin. He was asking me, just this time, to stay home. I knew it without a doubt. I remember the feeling of defiance and shame I had when I made that decision to turn and go my own way. I really didn't want to give up what He was asking me to give up. I enjoyed what I was doing, and I was not ready to stop. Not even for the God of the Universe. In the many years that followed, I made hundreds of attempts to give this sin up. I would cry and pray and tell God 'I' was going to do this once and for all. That 'I' was going to give it up. Trying to do that in my power is another story, but for 15 years I tried. I just knew God was getting so tired of my ups and downs, my promises and failures, my constant going back and asking for forgiveness for the same sin over and over. That He would finally give up on me. Well, He didn't. He doesn't. Satan loves it that we let ourselves think this. If we get down on ourselves,filled with guilt, convinced that God has deserted us, then Satan can worm his way in. He can use a number of things to draw us further and further away from God. Overwork, alchohol, an affair, even being busy with religion. He can make great headway with fear-filled people who are convinced they've out-sinned God. Lucado points out a story in the Bible that shows God knows how we feel about this issue. The book tells this story in a way I hadn't considered before, but it makes so much sense. You remember the story in Mark 2? A disabled man had some friends who wanted to get him healed by Jesus. When they heard Jesus was in town, they carried the man on a mat to see the Healer. There were so many there to see Jesus, these friends had virtually no chance of getting in. So they concocted a plan. They went to the roof, removed part of it, and lowered the friend through the hole to the room where Jesus was. Here's where the story gets important for us. Jesus did not say to the man, "You are healed". He said something very strange.....He said "Son, your sins are forgiven." Now there were a lot of reasons Jesus said this in this particular way. But Lucado points out that one of the reasons was to address our deepest problem (sin) and our deepest fear (fear of failing God). Lucado points to 1John 5:13- "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life." Know. The word comes from the Greek word eido (i'-do) meaning to be aware, understand. We need to understand that we belong to Him. When you really belong to someone, they don't get ticked off at you and walk out of your life. They don't adhere to the 'three strikes and you're out' philosophy. It's a done deal. You're in. God wants us to know that. He wants us to understand. If we have a relationship with His Son, if we know that we know that we know that Jesus is the Christ, we're in. God may discipline us as any good parent disciplines his children, but He's not ticked off at us. He's not like any earthly parent we know about. He doesn't withdraw His love in anger. He doesn't prefer one child over another. He doesn't give us 'x' number of chances and then we're done. Doesn't happen. He's in it for the long haul. Forever. In that one particular area of my life, that perpetual sin, I have to tell you after many years it did have a happy ending. When I quit worrying about trying to do it myself, when I quit the up and down cycle of 'God's mad at me, I can't do anything right, blah,blah,blah'......when I finally let Him have it, God took that thorn from my flesh. He never was mad at me.....I just wouldn't let Him do what He wanted to do for me. What a waste of time. He's not mad at you either. No matter what you're fighting, what you're struggling with, how you're handling it. There's a difference between discipline and anger. All He wants is for us to do it His way. And He loves us so much He'll do what it takes to get us where we need to be. But mad at us and done with us? Nope. We're His. Done and paid for. We can throw that fear in the trash where it belongs.